Nothing works for hours on most rails in northern Germany: According to the railways, an act of sabotage triggered a massive disruption of the train radio – and messed up the start of the weekend for many travelers. On Saturday, long-distance and partly also regional traffic of Deutsche Bahn were affected in large parts of northern Germany.
In the course of the morning, the railway then reported that the disruption had been rectified, but that there could still be impairments. Other railway companies also reported massive disruptions. The train assumed sabotage: “Due to sabotage of cables that are essential for train traffic, Deutsche Bahn had to stop train traffic in the north for almost three hours this morning,” said a spokeswoman.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing also spoke of sabotage. Cables were severed at two locations. The FDP politician did not provide any information on possible perpetrators and their motive.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser also spoke of “willful acts” and emphasized that the background was “still unclear”. The federal police are investigating “at high pressure,” said the SPD politician.
“We have a crime scene in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen,” said a spokesman for the Federal Police Directorate in Berlin German press agency. “Another is in North Rhine-Westphalia.” Security circles said that fiber optic cables were deliberately damaged at the Karower Kreuz in Berlin and in Herne in North Rhine-Westphalia. The backup system also failed.
Countless passengers were stranded during the failure at major train stations such as Hanover, Hamburg and Berlin. Long queues formed at information desks, while the display boards in the station halls were either completely empty or information was given about “indefinitely late” trains or complete cancellations.
Situation at Hanover train station tense but peaceful
At the Hanover rail junction, where important north-south and east-west rail connections meet, the waiting rail passengers were largely calm, as a dpa reporter reported. Many of them would have stood shaking their heads in front of the large display board that informed about the train cancellations. But there was no aggressive mood. Later, the train wanted to start distributing coffee and tea to those waiting. Outside, small groups had formed at the taxi rank and tried to get by in small car pools by taxi to the next big city.
In the meantime, nothing was going on with the Northwest Railway because of the disruption. “We are not driving on most of the routes at the moment,” said a spokeswoman for the railway company on Saturday morning – before the disruption was rectified. The entire Weser-Ems network was meanwhile affected, as well as the Regio-S-Bahn and parts of East Westphalia. Individual replacement services should be organized. The Hanover S-Bahn was also affected, all trains stood still for hours, as a spokesman said. The regional trains from Metronom, Enno and Erixx were also canceled.
After the disruption was resolved, train passengers still had to expect delays. The severe problems are due to a disruption in the digital train radio GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Rail), said a railway spokeswoman. “It is used for communication between the control centers that control the train traffic and is therefore an indispensable component for smooth train traffic.”
In the morning, the bad news was: “There are currently no long-distance travel options from/to Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony in/from the direction of Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Berlin and NRW.” For example, all ICE traffic between Berlin, Hanover and North Rhine-Westphalia was suspended. International connections were also affected. IC trains between Berlin and Amsterdam didn’t run like that at all. There was also a standstill in some regional trains.
Travelers take detours on crowded trains
As an alternative, the company suggested travelers between Berlin and Cologne and between Berlin and Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland to use long-distance connections with a change in Erfurt and Frankfurt am Main. Many travelers who wanted to travel from Berlin to North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, followed the train’s recommendation and took the detour with a change in Frankfurt.
The result was completely overcrowded trains, as a dpa reporter from the ICE 934 reported on the journey to Frankfurt. In Norddeich-Mole, a regional express to Hanover departed five minutes late on Saturday morning – the train was full of passengers, but not overcrowded. Numerous ferries from Norderney and Juist had docked. A conductor shouted via megaphone from the platform in the direction of the pier: “Please board this train. There will be no trains from here in the next few hours.”