German Railway Says Scheduled Work Caused Nationwide Train Outage
8 reported1 unconfirmed
A scheduled replacement of a technical component triggered a communications outage on Germany's railway network late Tuesday, bringing all trains to a halt and stranding travelers across the country, according to the network operator. The main railway operator, federal government-owned Deutsche Bahn, apologized for the abrupt halt in services, which resumed gradually about two hours later, after midnight. Long lines formed at information desks as travelers sought to reach their destinations or find overnight accommodations. Deutsche Bahn said it offered taxi and hotel vouchers and, where possible, put trains in place for waiting passengers, but travelers complained of a lack of information and limited hotel availability. The outage was caused by a problem with the GSM-R digital communication system used for internal railway communication. The head of the operator's DB InfraGO infrastructure division, Philipp Nagl, stated that the cause appeared to be "the scheduled swap of a technical component," though he did not elaborate. Nagl added that the company is analyzing with the highest priority how the fault occurred and apologized to customers for the disruption.
What’s reported
The outage occurred late Tuesday and halted all train traffic in Germany.
Service resumed gradually about two hours later, after midnight.
The cause was a problem with the GSM-R digital communication system.
Philipp Nagl, head of DB InfraGO, said the cause appeared to be "the scheduled swap of a technical component."
Deutsche Bahn offered taxi and hotel vouchers and put trains in place for waiting passengers.
Passengers complained of a lack of information and limited hotel availability.
Trains were running "largely seamlessly" on Wednesday morning, though some delays remained.
Oliver Krischer, regional transport minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, called the outage "a new low in already poor operating quality" and called for emergency mechanisms to prevent future disasters.
Open questions
The article does not specify what the replaced technical component was or how exactly it caused the communications failure.
Key figures
Philipp Nagl, head of DB InfraGO infrastructure division
Oliver Krischer, regional transport minister in North Rhine-Westphalia state
Sources: abcnews.com
