Microsoft outage disrupts rail operations in Germany

The national railway company of Germany is reporting a major disruption under incident number BZI_34678, describing Microsoft Outlook as "running extremely slowly". The rail operator suspects problems with Microsoft's server infrastructure. The disruption appears to be linked to a wider outage that Microsoft describes as "Service degradation on Microsoft 365 (Business or Enterprise) and Microsoft consumer products".

As a result, Deutsche Bahn is having difficulty sending timetables for diverted services, a problem compounded by extensive construction work across its network. According to the notice, the disruption began at 7 p.m. on November 12. The notice lists it as lasting until the start of the day. An update was issued shortly before midnight, according to an info bot on Mastodon.

Most overnight rail traffic consists of freight trains. Even so, the impact is difficult to assess because the notice does not specify how many timetables need to be sent at short notice or whether the disruption will also affect daytime passenger services, which begin around 4 to 5 a.m local time.

Reports of problems with rail operations have also emerged in other countries. Australia's ABC reports that an unnamed rail operator is having trouble sending emails, according to a post on Bluesky. The operator apparently cannot dispatch trains onto its network.

Canada's Via Rail has also reported problems on Twitter. Its operations are unaffected, but customer communications are disrupted, preventing it from sending train delay notifications.

Microsoft is working to resolve the outage. However, servers that the company successfully brought back online subsequently froze again, leaving some services with limited availability. Exchange Online tops the list: "Exchange Online: Users may be unable to access their mailbox using Outlook on the web, Outlook desktop". The disruption can also affect entire workstations, as Windows 365 Cloud PCs are among the services impacted.