News / Severe floods cause delay and disruption across central and east Europe

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Severe flooding across central and eastern Europe is leading to transport delays, forwarders have warned. 

The border between the Czech Republic and Poland was hit by heavy rain at the weekend, forcing some residents to evacuate and bridges to collapse – so far, 17 people across the region have died. 

Yesterday, Hungarian authorities closed the border bridge on Main Road 14, disrupting road traffic to Slovakia. There are also road closures in Poland, Romania, Czech Republic and Austria, as well as secondary road closures in the southern German states of Bavaria and Saxony. 

METRANS sent out an advisory to customers, warning: “We are forced to inform you that there has been a significant reduction/stoppage of rail traffic since the weekend, caused by extensive flooding.” 

Kuehne + Nagel said its services to and from Austria, via Linz and Krems, to all ports in the METRANS network were affected, as well as services to and from the Czech Republic via Ostrava, where the terminal was inaccessible. It added that Terminal Usti and Labem was closed due to high water levels. 

It noted: “The route to the northern ports is still passable, but we are waiting for the development of the flood situation on the Elbe, which has not yet reached its maximum, and could completely stop the traffic.” 

It added: “All trains in the Bilk-Schedule are currently parked on the route to and from Budapest, and there is no clear indication of when regular freight train traffic will resume.” 

K+N said it understood that the Hungarian Vámosszabadi border crossing would be closed until 23 September. 

MSC said some container terminals in the intermodal network were facing operational limitations due to the conditions.