On Friday, an ICE drove for the first time on the new rail route from Wendlingen to Ulm. It was an important event, Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann visited the driver’s cab, a priest gave his blessing to the four billion euro route and then the ICE even defied the snowdrifts on the Swabian Jura on the premiere journey. Punctually to the minute, he glided into Ulm station, where railway manager Richard Lutz promised future passengers “reliability at the highest level”.
On Monday morning, however, when the first commuters wanted to use the new route, reliability was once again an issue. A train was stuck in one of the line’s tunnels for so long that passengers were served hot drinks as compensation. There were sometimes delays of more than an hour. Several regional and long-distance trains had to be diverted via the old, slower route.
According to Bahn, the fault was with a train driver who operated the ETCS digital train control system. Therefore, “an ICE on the new line between Ulm and Wendlingen could not connect to the train control system,” said a railway spokeswoman. The safety systems would have prevented further travel.
The disruption is an isolated case
Everything should actually go faster on the new route. ICEs can travel up to 250 kilometers per hour there. If you drive from Stuttgart to Munich, you need around 15 minutes less than before. Bahn boss Lutz described the new route at the ceremonial opening on Friday as “speed maker of the railway in the southwest”.
The railway now emphasizes that the disruption on Monday morning was an isolated case: “Since the start of operations on Sunday, 99 percent of the trains have run over the new route without any problems,” it said. The train drivers should be sensitized again. Operations on the new route are now back to normal.
Already on Sunday, when the new route went into regular operation for the first time, there were disruptions, traffic jams – and apparently also problems with the ETCS. The train drivers were also given service instructions, which the SZ has available. Accordingly, the technology does not work automatically, the train drivers have to enter the commands. A “perfect chaos,” said a train driver of the SZ. The instruction speaks of a “lineside configuration error”. The error should be eliminated by mid-2023.