Between Leipzig and Erfurt
ICE breaks down: 450 passengers have to wait hours for rescue
An ICE (archive image)
© Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez / DPA
A nightmare for travelers: At the weekend, an ICE train broke down in the middle of the route in Thuringia. It took hours until a replacement train arrived, and many passengers had to struggle with circulatory problems.
On Saturday evening, an ICE train from Berlin to Munich had to interrupt its journey between Leipzig and Erfurt due to technical problems. The train had 450 passengers on board and stopped in the Sömmerda district shortly after passing the Finnetunnel. The outage occurred around 5:30 p.m., among other things MDR Thuringia reports.
Because there was a wheelchair user on board, the fire department was called to help. Several travelers struggled with circulatory problems. According to operations management, the fresh air supply had apparently failed, which caused the discomfort. It took three hours for a replacement train to arrive on site. It wasn’t until 10 p.m. that the last passenger changed trains and was driven to Erfurt with the others.
An ICE passenger goes to the hospital
One passenger was so badly injured that he was taken to hospital in an ambulance. After three hours, the emergency power failed and the on-site fire department had to illuminate the stranded train so that the passengers were not left in the dark.
The defective ICE was then towed away. The high-speed route was therefore closed until 12:45 a.m. on Sunday morning. In the meantime, long-distance traffic between Erfurt and Leipzig was rerouted via Weimar and Naumburg and was delayed by around 30 minutes. Already in January an ICE was there because of onedue to a technical defect near Großbrembach. At that time, 90 passengers had to change to a replacement train.