Travelers on current or future Moselle cruise shall ask their travel providers for impact.
The affected lock is located between Cochem and Traben-Trarbach / Bernkastel-Kues.
"There has been another accident involving a ship at a Moselle lock. This time a gate at the St. Aldegund lock was damaged. Shipping traffic is now jammed there. According to the authorities, this could continue for days.
A total of 50 ships are at anchor and are now stuck for the time being. According to the Waterways and Shipping Authority (WSA), this will remain the case for the next few days.
According to the WSA, it could be months before a replacement gate is installed. In contrast to the lock accident in Müden at the end of last year [see link to thread at the bottom], a solution is being worked on to allow ships to pass through the lock on a permanent temporary basis. This would allow shipping traffic to resume earlier.
Background: A cruise ship collided with the gate of the Sankt Aldegund lock (Cochem-Zell district) on Wednesday afternoon. Lock operations then had to be completely shut down. According to the WSA, the gate's impact protection, a steel cable, was defective. However, a warning sign had alerted skippers to the problem.
A total of three people were injured as a result of the collision. Another person required medical treatment due to the high temperatures caused by the weather. The cruise ship's passengers were disembarked in the morning. According to the shipping company, the ship can carry 128 guests. It is not yet known how many were actually on board. The tour operator took the passengers by bus to the ship's destination in Düsseldorf on Thursday morning. According to the police, some also drove home on their own."
Source: article in German language, translated with DeepL
Link to earlier thread on different case "River Moselle is expected to remain closed for shipping traffic until the end of March 2025"