The railway line from Fröndenberg to Unna in North Rhine-Westphalia is expected to remain closed for several years due to badger construction under a railway embankment. So far, 140 entrances to badger burrows have been discovered, Deutsche Bahn said.
The animals would have made the dam unstable over a length of around eleven kilometers. The repairs amounted to rebuilding the dam, it was said. The railway expects that the planning and approval phase alone will take several years. Several media outlets had previously reported.
The first damage was discovered in November 2022. Because the route runs through a landscape and bird protection area and part through a nature reserve, the investigations had to be suspended over the summer until a special permit was available. In order to fully discover all the individual badger dens, trees and bushes along the dam had to be cut back along the route. The subsequent investigation showed that the animals had built an extensive tunnel system several meters below the tracks.
Instead of the affected regional train 54, buses now run between Fröndenberg and Unna, as a railway spokesman said on Saturday. In terms of time, the impact on passengers would be relatively limited – according to Deutsche Bahn, the buses take 23 minutes, seven minutes longer than the trains.
People rarely see badgers in the wild. The shy animals usually successfully avoid encounters, prefer to be out and about at night and sleep in well-hidden burrows that can often be kilometers long.
Source: Deutsche Bahn
