The travel information that was issued several days ago for Frankfurt am Main has proved not always to be effective.

On Thursday, one protest caused the station “Dom / Römer” to be closed, and today the protests have moved around the city causing various tram lines to close at one time or another.  The area around the main station (Hauptbahnhof) was also affected.

Since there is an approved march taking place in the city tomorrow, new travel information has been issued.

Between approximately 12 noon and 5pm the tram lines 11, 12, 16, 18 and 21 will be shortened even further as will bus route 36.

The stations “Willy-Brandt-Platz” and “Taunusanlage” on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines also remain closed.

Further stations may be closed on order of the police if deemed necessary.

For up-to-date travel news in German on Twitter follow @vgf_ffm or @allthingsgerman for updates in English.

A large demonstration is taking place in Frankfurt am Main this weekend.  It is expected to last until the early hours of Sunday morning, and 30,000 demonstrators are expected.  Their aim is to shut down the banking area of Frankfurt and stop the employees there from getting to work.

Many shops in the area have been boarded up and some banks have made contingency plans for their employees to work from home.  Others have instructed their staff to avoid formal dress.

The biggest disruption is to the public transport network and anyone travelling to or through Frankfurt this weekend should be aware of the following changes to services:

• S-Bahn trains are not stopping at “Taunusanlage”.  This affects lines S1 to S6, S8 and S9
• U-Bahn trains are not stopping at “Willy-Brandt-Platz”.  This affects lines U1 to U5 and U8
• Trams 11 and 12 will terminate at the Hauptbahnhof in the west of the city and “Börneplatz / Stoltzestraße” in the east.  There is no service through the city centre.
• Bus route 64 will only operate between Ginnheim and Miquel-/Adickesallee.  There is no service to the Hauptbahnhof.
• The night buses n1, n2 and n8 will be routed around the area.
• The Ebbelwoi-Express will not be in Service between Wednesday and Saturday
• The ticket offices at Hauptwache, Konstablerwache and Bornheim Mitte will be closed on Friday and Saturday

The latest travel news in German can be found on Twitter by following @vgf_ffm.  Follow us on @allthingsgerman for updates in English.

Several weeks ago a visitor to the town hall (Rathaus) in Oberursel attacked the people working there with a knife.  Only a day later I read that it was believed an attack  might take place at a grammar school in Frankfurt.

It’s not that these things don’t happen in Germany, but these two were too close for comfort – I even had a meeting the very next day at the town hall to attend!

It made me wonder if this sort of violence was on the increase.  Were these one-off attacks or threats?  I often read the local news and even the police press releases and can’t remember anything on quite this scale for a long time.

And yes, it worries me. (more…)