Ministry hides dangerous problem railway line in Bavaria - a piquant detail for Scheuer

In January, almost two DB trains collided near Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

In July, two people died in a collision on a route with the same defects.

According to our information, such routes still abound.

• Six railway lines in Bavaria are so technically outdated that collisions between trains cannot be ruled out.

• This also includes large parts of the Rottalbahn, which touches the constituency of Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU *).

• Spicy: His ministry concealed a question in the Bundestag.

• On request, the Federal Ministry of Transport explains that

  different security processes are

  used

  on the Garmisch route and the Rottalbahn

  .

Almost train disaster in Garmisch-Partenkirchen triggers everything

Munich / Passau

- On

, this year nearly occurred when Griese in Upper Bavaria to disaster * Late regional train on the journey from

to

had to

the

just left when the

abruptly braked: A

train was already on the same track

.

The trains came to a stop only 20 meters apart.

Near collision of regional railways: Ministry initiates investigation

As usual in such cases, the Federal Office for Accident Investigation (BEU) in Bonn, which belongs to the

,

initiated

an investigation.

In July it came to the conclusion that the route is being operated without "technically implemented follow-up and counter-traffic protection".

who determine the

of

agree on a train notification procedure

.

After a near collision in Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Authority suggests security check

Not only the

is at this age-old technical level, but, as the BEU itself wrote in its interim report published on its Internet, 52 other railway lines in Germany.

In the report, she suggested that all routes be subjected to a

assessment, but which routes would be specifically affected was

DB Netz does not want to publish a list of dangerous routes - our publisher complains against it - with success

After both the rail accident investigation office and DB Netz AG refused to name the routes in detail despite multiple requests,

filed a

complaint with the

(where DB Netz has its headquarters).

On Monday, the railway gave in on the advice of its lawyers.

In order to avoid a lawsuit, she paid the legal costs and sent

our newspaper

(The

)

Now it is clear: There are

Lüneburg-Dahlenburg (Lower Saxony), Wabern-Fritzlar (Hesse), Rastatt-Wintersdorf (Baden-Württemberg) and many other branch lines are technically outdated.

Some routes are also in East Germany and lead to the Czech Republic.

The

is also

, which then continues to Karlsbad.

Two regional trains collided there in July, killing two people.

Six Bavarian railway lines are also listed - more on that in a moment.

Dangerous railway lines all over Germany: Suddenly a topic in the Bundestag too

Even before our newspaper

received

the

from the

, the topic had reached the

.

After a tip from the

who had followed our reporting, his Baden-Württemberg colleague

submitted

a request

in

to which

without technically implemented follow-up and counter-traffic protection.

Janecek would have liked to submit the request himself, but he had already exhausted his quota - hence the detour via his colleague Zickenheiner.

Greens ask in the Bundestag: the scrubbing ministry hides dangerous railway line

On July 24th - before our newspaper received the complete list - the

replied

: In addition to the route near

there is only one other

route

that is so outdated: between

.

However, there are only occasional freight trains from the Schongau paper mill, no passenger trains.

Secret railway lines are in Lower Bavaria - more precisely near Passau

What Ferlemann did not mention: The Federal Accident Investigation Center had

in its sights.

There are four consecutive sections of the

This is a single-track, non-electrified railway line that runs through the touristically interesting

from Passau * to

and then on to

.

The route is likely to be one of the slowest in Bavaria - anyone who drives through it from start to finish takes around three hours and has to change trains at least once.

Then there are the collision risks disclosed by the BEU.

The approximately

between

and

in

are without technical collision protection

Spicy: Ministry hides problem railway line - it is in the Walhkreis of Andreas Scheuer (CSU)

Rail problems in Lower Bavaria - once again.

Bavaria's Transport Minister Kerstin Schreyer (CSU) has just ordered that part of the

discontinued due to too few passengers.

The resentment in the region - also among CSU mandate holders - is therefore great.

The problem that has now become known affects your colleague at the federal level,

The ancient railway line leads into his constituency (city and district of Passau).

Why did Scheuer's State Secretary keep the problem railway line secret in his constituency?

Why did Scheuer's State Secretary Ferlemann keep the Rottalbahn away when answering the Bundestag question?

used

on the Garmisch route and the Rottalbahn

.

Ferlemann only mentioned the two routes on which it depends solely on agreements between the dispatchers.

At the Rottalbahn there are "supporting safeguards" - which, the ministry does not say.

In any case, it is clear that the Rottalbahn is on the BEU's list of defects.

The

have

.

MP Dieter Janecek is, to say the least, dissatisfied with the “quality of the response” from the ministry.

It is simply "embarrassing" that such an antediluvian route is partly in the constituency of Scheuers.

"Should it be confirmed that the Federal Ministry of Transport has deliberately withheld information here, that would really be a lot," Jancek told our newspaper.

That will also have consequences.

The

published a press release that had apparently been in preparation for some time on Monday, just 20 minutes after sending the list to our newspaper via email.

“The safest means of transport, rail, will be even safer,” it says.

"Deutsche Bahn is equipping older mechanical and electromechanical signal boxes as well as single-track branch lines with additional safety technology." For this, 100 million euros would be invested over the next three years.

100 million for 53 routes - that leaves less than two million euros per route.

Whether that is enough for safe train travel is an unanswered question.

All the affected routes sorted by route number, route section;

and further information

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.