In Neustadt am Rübenberge, life is restricted by rail traffic

Seven level crossings cut through Neustadt am Rübenberge. People have to plan up to 30 minutes buffer on their way. This causes stress – and can also be dangerous.

The queue of vehicles is getting longer and longer. The barrier at the level crossing has now been closed for 14 minutes. A few drivers got out and are scolding, one honks, and even the ambulance doesn’t move at first. First an ICE rushes by, then nothing for a long time, until the long freight train rattles through from the other direction. A normal day in Neustadt am Rübenberge. Seven level crossings cut through the city in Lower Saxony, impairing people’s everyday lives and slowing them down.

The barriers are down here for up to 16 hours a day. Neustadt is on the route between Bremen and Hanover, all freight trains to the Jade-Weser-Port have to go through here. The result: On average, around 287 local, long-distance and freight trains pass through the village every day, according to Deutsche Bahn. And it gets even worse: More and more goods are being shifted to the rails, the railways are increasing the frequency.

Even emergency workers have to wait

So if you live here, you have to plan for buffer times. You always stand in front of a barrier for at least ten, sometimes up to 30 minutes – regardless of whether it’s a bicycle or a private car, whether it’s a garbage truck, public bus or fire brigade.

Residents are worried that the emergency services will have to wait if there is any doubt. “We always think about the barrier,” says Carsten Köhne. He himself had an accident last year, lay at home in pain and calculated how much later the emergency doctor would come.

Risk level crossing

But the transitions themselves are also a risk. People, frustrated by the constant waiting, become careless. “When you see how many cars drive over here on red,” says local mayor Monika Strecker. “It’s so dangerous!” Cyclists dash under the barrier, pedestrians climb over it, cars accelerate when the ubiquitous bell of the lowering barrier rings.

There was just another accident at the Himmelreich level crossing in the north of the city. On the night of April 23, three young people died when the 22-year-old driver drove around the closed half barrier. Your car was hit by a regional express at full speed. The young man and his two 21- and 22-year-old passengers died instantly.

42 people died at German level crossings last year – more than since 2010. This is shown by data from the Federal Bureau for Railway Accident Investigation (BEU). The Deutsche Bahn statistics are unequivocal: more than 97 percent of the accidents were caused by misconduct on the part of road users.

Driving around half barriers alone – as in Himmelreich – would lead to more than a third of all accidents. Train drivers have no chance of stopping in time: a 1,000-ton passenger train, for example, has a braking distance of around one kilometer at 100 km/h.

Fight against windmills

There are currently around 16,000 crossings in Germany, most of them in Bavaria (around 2940), Lower Saxony (2040) and North Rhine-Westphalia (2000). The number of level crossings has roughly halved since the 1950s. They have been replaced by underpasses or bridges, or lines have been shut down.

Something similar is also planned in Neustadt am Rübenberge – and has been for years. Exactly a decade ago, Ulrich Thies founded the citizens’ initiative “Barrier away!” founded. Now he has thrown in the towel because, despite all the work, despite correspondence, timekeeping, and personal commitment, nothing has moved. A fight against windmills: “Against the stubbornness of the authorities and their idea of ​​the passage of time,” says Thies resignedly. “The fact that every day counts here and not years, you can’t argue with that.”

The start of construction can be postponed

Modernizing a level crossing costs millions. Who will bear which costs, that too must first be distributed. In Neustadt am Rübenberge, for example, four parties are involved: in addition to the city and region of Hanover, the state road construction authority and, of course, the railways are project partners and must come to an agreement.

Negotiations with the route operator DB Netz sometimes drag on for many years. The railway defines so-called track closures for the track construction work. If the planning is not completed in time and this lockdown elapses, then the start of construction will be postponed again by years.

This is exactly what happened in Neustadt. Conservation surveys are necessary: ​​Are there protected species in the area of ​​the construction site, is the ground free of ordnance? Only when all this has been clarified can there be a plan approval decision and the tender can begin. In plain language: The first stone for the city’s first railway overpass will not be able to be laid until the end of 2026 at the earliest.

Those who know the timetables have an advantage

For many here, it’s just too late. “We feel left behind,” says Harry Lohmann, who lives with his wife behind the barrier in the Poggenhagen district, where the crossings are closed longer than in any other part of the city. Many have already moved away. The others know the timetables by heart and plan their day around the train times.

Neustadt am Rübenberge has grown around the rails and rail traffic remains more important than ever. Nevertheless: For the people here, life is restricted in the truest sense of the word.