Status: 17.11.2022 10:00 a.m
Two freight trains collided near Leiferde (Gifhorn district) in the early morning. Highly explosive gas escapes from two tankers. The Berlin-Hanover railway line will probably remain closed for a longer period of time.
According to information from the NDR in Lower Saxony, the two freight trains collided around half past three on the Berlin-Hannover express route. The collision happened between Leiferde and Dalldorf. A freight train stopped at a stop signal, then a freight train driving behind it drove up for reasons that have not yet been clarified, said a spokesman for the fire brigade. The driver of the train that ran up was injured and taken to a hospital, the driver of the front train was slightly injured.
Gas escapes from two tank wagons
According to a spokesman for the federal police, two tank wagons overturned in the collision and two more derailed. In total, the approaching train consisted of 25 tank wagons filled with propane gas. The gas escapes from two tankers. How much was initially unclear. The gas must first escape completely, said the federal police spokesman. The clean-up work and the investigation should therefore take at least a day, he announced. In addition, several hundred meters of overhead line were torn down in the accident. Experts from the Federal Bureau of Railway Accident Investigation should now investigate the scene of the accident.
No danger to the population
The gas leak makes for a complex deployment: rescuers can only get to the scene of the accident with heavy respiratory protection. In addition, the mobile operations control center could not be set up directly at the scene of the accident, but only at a greater distance at the train station in Leiferde, it said. A spokesman for the fire brigade said there was no danger to the population because the scene of the accident was in the middle of a forest.
Delays and cancellations in long-distance and regional transport
The accident has significant consequences for rail traffic – for regional and long-distance trains. The Berlin-Hanover railway line has been closed in both directions. Several ICE and IC connections have to be rerouted or fail. Travelers should find out about their connections before starting their journey, recommends the Deutsche Bahn.
The following long-distance connections fail:
- Trains of the ICE line 9 (Berlin – Bonn)
- Individual trains of the ICE/IC route 24 (Hamburg – Hanover – Berlin / Berlin – Frankfurt/Southern Germany)
- Individual trains of IC line 26 (Berlin – Hanover – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Fulda – Frankfurt/South Germany)
- Trains on IC line 32 (Berlin – Hanover – Dortmund – Cologne – Mannheim – Stuttgart – Ulm)
- Trains on IC line 56 (Dresden – Leipzig – Magdeburg – Hanover – Bremen – Emden – Norddeich Mole)
on The following long-distance lines are partially canceled:
- Trains on IC line 14 (Baltic Sea resort of Binz – Berlin – Hanover – Dortmund – Cologne) are canceled between Berlin Ostbahnhof and Cologne Hbf
- Trains on IC line 55 (Cologne – Dortmund – Hanover – Magdeburg – Leipzig – Dresden) are canceled between Cologne Hbf and Braunschweig Hbf
- Trains on IC line 77 (Berlin – Hanover – Bad Bentheim – Amsterdam Centraal) are canceled between Berlin Ostbahnhof and Hanover Hbf
- Detours and delays will occur on other connections.
Regional rail traffic is also affected: the private operator Enno announced that a replacement bus service had been set up on the Hanover-Wolfsburg route. The company assumes that the section between Wolfsburg and Lehrte will be closed for days.
Anytime to listen
