NAccording to Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), the major standstill in northern German rail traffic was temporarily paralyzed by a malicious attack in two places. “We know that the cables were deliberately cut at two different locations in Germany,” said the FDP politician on Saturday afternoon. “It is clear that this is a targeted and willful approach.”
However, the background to the crime is not yet known. The federal police are investigating. Thanks to Deutsche Bahn’s rapid crisis management, in coordination with his ministry, train traffic was able to resume in the morning. Deutsche Bahn had also previously spoken of sabotage.
Crime scenes in Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia
The federal police responsible for the safety of rail traffic gave the first details on Saturday afternoon and spoke of external influence. “We have a crime scene in Berlin-Höhenschönhausen,” said a spokesman for the Berlin Federal Police Directorate of the German Press Agency. “Another is in North Rhine-Westphalia.” The investigations would be carried out at full speed in all directions. “Currently, a targeted external influence on the cable of the Deutsche Bahn can be assumed,” said the spokesman. For reasons of investigation tactics, he could not provide any information on further details.
Nothing worked on most of the rails in the north on Saturday morning. The long-distance and partly also the regional traffic of Deutsche Bahn were affected in large parts of northern Germany. In the course of the morning, the railway reported that the disruption had been resolved.
In the morning it was said that the severe problems in northern Germany were due to a disruption in the digital train radio GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Rail). A railway spokeswoman said: “It is used for communication between the control centers that control the train traffic and the trains and is therefore an indispensable part of smooth train traffic.”
In the meantime, the railway has announced that the disruption to the train radio has been resolved. “Long-distance traffic in the affected areas is currently starting up again,” the company wrote on its website. Due to the after-effects, however, delays and cancellations could continue. According to the company, a high utilization of the first trains is to be expected.
The problems on Saturday also messed up travel plans in Baden-Württemberg. Several connections to and from Baden-Württemberg were canceled or, in some cases, significantly delayed. Among other things, trips to Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Stuttgart were affected. However, the railway did not provide any information on the extent of the effects in the southwest.
Countless passengers were stranded on Saturday morning at the major train stations such as Hanover, Hamburg and Berlin. Long queues formed at information desks, while the large display boards in the station halls were either completely empty or information was given about “indefinitely late” trains or complete cancellations.
Travelers have to wait a long time
At the Hanover rail junction, where important north-south and east-west rail connections meet, the waiting rail passengers were largely calm, according to information from the dpa. Many of them would have stood shaking their heads in front of the large display board that informed about the train cancellations. But there was no aggressive mood.
Later, the train wanted to start distributing coffee and tea to those waiting. Outside, small groups had formed at the taxi rank and tried to get by in small car pools by taxi to the next big city.
In Hamburg at 10.49 a.m. the first long-distance train, the ICE 509 to Munich via Berlin and Erfurt, left the main station, as a dpa reporter reported there. It was half an hour late and heavily overcrowded.
International connections were also affected. IC trains between Berlin and Amsterdam didn’t run like that at all. IC trains from Copenhagen terminated at the Danish-German border in Padborg. There was also some standstill with regional trains – for example with RE and RB connections in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein, as the railway announced.
The company recommended travelers traveling between Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia and between Berlin and Baden-Württemberg or Switzerland to use connections via Erfurt and Frankfurt/Main.
In general, Deutsche Bahn recommended that its travelers inform themselves shortly before planned trips via www.bahn.de/reiseauskunft, via the “DB Navigator” app or by calling 030/2970. The Bahn website said: “As soon as we have new information, we will keep you updated here.”
