Nothing works for hours on most rails in the north: a technical fault in the train radio system caused chaos on the train on Saturday and messed up the start of the weekend for many travelers.
The long-distance and partly also the 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.
Countless passengers were stranded at the major train stations such as Hanover, Hamburg and Berlin. Long queues formed at information desks, while the large display boards in the station halls were either completely empty or information was given about “indefinitely late” trains or complete cancellations.
Many travelers get stranded in Hanover
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 Hamburg at 10.49 a.m. the first long-distance train, the ICE 509 to Munich via Berlin and Erfurt, left the main station, as a dpa reporter reported there. It was half an hour late and heavily overcrowded.
Cause of disruption still unclear
The severe problems were due to a disruption in the digital train radio GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Rail), explained a railway spokeswoman. “It is used for communication between the control centers that control the train traffic and the trains and is therefore an indispensable component for smooth train traffic.”
What exactly triggered the disruption remained open for the time being. When asked about a possible targeted disruption, security circles only said to the German Press Agency (dpa) on Saturday morning that the investigations were ongoing and the cause was still unknown.
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.” Specifically, for example, all ICE traffic between Berlin, Hanover and North Rhine-Westphalia was stopped, as the railway company announced on its website.
International connections were also affected. IC trains between Berlin and Amsterdam didn’t run like that at all. IC trains from Copenhagen terminated at the Danish-German border in Padborg. There was also a standstill in some regional trains – such as RE and RB connections in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein, as the railway announced.
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. “Please understand that the trains that are still running sometimes have a very high number of passengers,” it said.
Alternative connections completely overcrowded
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. “No getting through in the aisles because everything is blocked with passengers sitting or standing there,” he said.
Deutsche Bahn recommended that its travelers inform themselves shortly before planned trips via www.bahn.de/reiseauskunft, via the “DB Navigator” app or by calling 030/2970. The train also promised a special goodwill: All passengers who have postponed their trip planned for October 8th due to the train radio disruption can use their already booked long-distance ticket flexibly within the next seven days, as it was said. “In addition, the general passenger rights apply in the event of a delay or cancellation of the train.”
