Germany’s national railway network ground to a halt late on Tuesday, leaving countless passengers stranded nationwide after a critical communications system failed.

Frustrated travellers formed lengthy queues at station information desks, desperately seeking alternative routes and updates on their journeys.

Deutsche Bahn, the primary operator, confirmed that all services were held at stations due to a nationwide issue with the GSM-R digital communication system, vital for internal network communications.

Deutsche Bahn said in a statement at midnight, one-and-a-half hours after it first announced the problem, that the cause had been identified, but didn’t specify what it was. It said that technicians “are working intensively on a solution.”

The company said it would give taxi and hotel vouchers to passengers and, where possible, make available trains at stations for travellers to sit in. It apologised for the situation.

About two hours after the outage was reported, trains on at least part of the network were moving again.

The Berlin commuter network said trains were running, but delays and cancellations should still be expected. DB Regio Mitte, which runs regional trains in parts of western and southwestern Germany, said it had also resumed service but delays and cancellations should still be expected until at least 6am on Wednesday.

GSM-R, short for Global System for Mobile Communications–Railway, offers voice and data services needed to operate railways, including communication between train drivers and control centres.

According to the European Union Agency for Railways, it has been introduced across Europe since 2000 as a common standard for railway operations.

In recent years, complaints about train delays and disruption in Germany have become increasingly frequent.

Government-owned Deutsche Bahn has started conducting thorough but disruptive overhauls of major routes after years of underinvestment in a bid to improve its performance.

The German railway system has on rare occasions in the past halted all or most trains, but because of storms rather than for technical reasons.