After a train accident in Bavaria
Leads to even more delays: Bahn has to check 200,000 concrete sleepers
A track measurement train from Deutsche Bahn checks the rail network on certain sections of the route
© Maurizio Gambarini / Picture Alliance
The cause of the derailment of a regional train in Bavaria, in which five people were killed and 15 others seriously injured, has not yet been determined. As a precaution, the railway is subjecting certain sections of the route to an inspection – there are closures and diversions.
More than a month after the serious train accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen with several deaths, Deutsche Bahn wants to check thousands of concrete sleepers.
The work is precautionary, the group announced on Wednesday. The concrete sleepers examined are the same type of construction as on the section of track where the train was involved. The thresholds used there are currently being checked by the investigating authorities.
Even if the investigations into the accident are still ongoing and the cause of the accident has not yet been determined, Deutsche Bahn wants to inspect the identical sleepers in the network and replace them if there are any abnormalities.
A total of around 200,000 of the sleepers in the entire German route network are to be checked. According to DB information, this corresponds to around 0.25 percent of all concrete sleepers in the network. On average, the components are 15 years old.
If “recognizable changes on the surface” were discovered, the sleepers should be replaced. In some cases this has already happened. The work could lead to diversions or delays, it said.
On June 3, a regional train in Bavaria from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Munich derailed. Four women and a 13-year-old died. 16 people were seriously injured, about 50 slightly.
Recently there have been more and more indications that spoke for the suspicion that had existed from the beginning that the accident could have been caused by technical defects. For example, a printed matter by the Bundestag’s Transport Committee speaks of a rail shift and “partially damaged concrete sleepers”.