Lightning Strike Halts Berlin's S3 Commuter Rail for Hours

A lightning strike caused a major disruption on Berlin’s S3 commuter rail line on Sunday. The incident halted train services for several hours between Friedrichshagen and Erkner. The outage began at 2:42 p.m. when S-Bahn Berlin reported the issue. The S3 line, which runs from Spandau through Hauptbahnhof to Erkner, saw trains stopped in both directions. Temporary replacement buses were quickly arranged to keep passengers moving.

Normal service resumed at 5:17 p.m. after the problem was fixed. Trains on the affected section of the S3 line then returned to their usual schedule. The disruption lasted nearly three hours. Passengers were able to use the replacement buses during the outage. Full operations on the S3 line were restored by the early evening.