National rail operator Deutsche Bahn said all trains had been immobilized at stations following a breakdown in critical communication infrastructure used to coordinate rail traffic across the network.

The company said technical teams were working to resolve the disruption but did not provide a timetable for restoring operations.

The outage affected services operated by Deutsche Bahn as well as regional and local transport providers, according to transport authorities and rail operators. Berlin’s public transport authority said the disruption extended across all categories of rail services nationwide.

In northern Germany, regional operator Metronom reported that rail traffic had come to a complete stop due to the large-scale communications failure. The company, which serves routes linking Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover and carries more than 120,000 passengers daily, advised travelers to avoid rail journeys and seek alternative means of transportation.

“We think that nothing else will be running tonight,” Metronom spokesman Simon Martens told AFP.

Authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, said rail traffic had been entirely suspended as a result of the outage.

The incident highlights the challenges facing Germany’s railway system as the government seeks to modernize infrastructure that has suffered from decades of underinvestment. The network has frequently faced criticism over delays, congestion and aging equipment, prompting Berlin to commit substantial public funding toward upgrades and expansion projects.

Railway radio systems are a critical component of train operations, enabling communication between dispatchers, control centers and train crews. Any widespread failure can force operators to suspend services for safety reasons until reliable communications are restored.

Officials have not indicated whether the disruption resulted from a technical malfunction, infrastructure failure or another cause. Deutsche Bahn said investigations into the outage were continuing while engineers worked to return the network to service.

The disruption affected one of Europe’s busiest rail systems, with thousands of passengers facing delays and cancellations during the evening travel period.