More than five months after the train accident that killed five people in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Deutsche Bahn (DB) is resuming traffic on the route. Trains to and from Garmisch-Partenkirchen should run again regularly from Wednesday morning. The first train from the Upper Bavarian city towards Munich leaves at 5:14 a.m., a DB spokeswoman reported. The first train from the state capital is expected at 6.20 a.m. in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
A regional train to Munich derailed on June 3rd. Four women and a 13-year-old died in the accident and dozens of people were injured, some seriously. After the investigators released the route after the accident, the railway started extensive repair work.
In the tourism region, however, the company’s crisis communication in particular caused a lot of trouble. On August 9, for example, DB initially announced that “at the start of the school year on September 13, the trains could again largely run stably on the main route from Munich via Garmisch to Mittenwald”. A few days later it was said that the tracks would only remain in operation for three weeks after the summer holidays and would then have to be closed again for work. Local politicians called on the railways to comprehensively repair the route and to refrain from short-term operation. Ultimately, that’s how it happened.
The company spokeswoman said that recently there had been tamping work on the ballast and welding work on the rails. According to DB, in the coming weeks until the timetable change on December 11th, there will still be partial travel time extensions and individual train cancellations. As a consequence of the accident, Deutsche Bahn also began checking around 200,000 concrete sleepers nationwide. Most of them should be replaced as a precaution. It has not been ruled out that problems with the sleepers contributed to the accident.
The public prosecutor’s office in Munich II is still investigating four railway employees on suspicion of negligent homicide. A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that it was not foreseeable how long the investigation would last.