How the railway wants to get the problems with the signal box at Ostbahnhof under control

Created: 05/19/2022, 11:54 am

By: Marc Kniepkamp

Problems in the signal box at Ostbahnhof keep causing problems on the Munich S-Bahn © Frank Leonhardt/dpa

The signal box at the Ostbahnhof repeatedly causes major problems in the Munich S-Bahn network - even at rush hour.

Now Deutsche Bahn wants to break new ground to get the chaos under control.

Yesterday was another typical day for commuters with the S-Bahn in Munich: The train reported a signal box malfunction and this led to S-Bahn chaos with delays and train cancellations in rush-hour traffic.

S-Bahn failures in the middle of rush hour

The problem with the train had already been noticed during the night.

"The colleagues worked at full speed all night to eliminate the fault," said a railway spokeswoman when asked by our newspaper.

This finally succeeded at 7 o'clock in the morning.

Stellwerk Ost: The central switching point for rail traffic at Munich Ostbahnhof (archive photo).

© Marcus sleep

The problem: By then, the damage to the passengers had already occurred.

A number of S-Bahn customers were annoyed by delays and cancellations.

Others had heard about the problems and had switched to cars - and were stuck in traffic jams at the motorway access roads and on the Mittlerer Ring.

Three tracks were unusable, and the trains were only used to a limited extent on the main line.

Bahn promises to investigate the causes and wants to get the problem under control

The railway spokeswoman meanwhile announces research into the causes.

Deutsche Bahn wants to get to the root of the problem at the Ostbahnhof.

New electronic interlocking should bring real improvements

In the long term, the problem should be resolved anyway - by replacing the signal box.

"We are currently building a new electronic interlocking at Ostbahnhof, which will go into operation in mid-June 2023," says the railway spokeswoman.

And expresses her hope: "With the latest technology, we will increase the quality and reliability of the S-Bahn."