"Poor pig": Stuttgart 21 boss feels sorry for the engine driver who caused chaos on the new line

Created: 12/15/2022, 12:38 p.m

By: Nadja Pohr

Just one day after the new line between Wendlingen and Ulm was opened, there was rail chaos due to the error of a train driver.

The project manager of Stuttgart 21 expressed his sympathy for him and also expressed criticism.

Stuttgart - It will be a few more years before the Stuttgart 21 project, worth billions, is completed in the state capital.

On Friday (December 9), however, Deutsche Bahn was able to celebrate a first milestone, as the high-speed line between Wendlingen and Ulm - which is part of the rail project - is finally operational after many years.

The route was officially included in the timetable on Sunday.

In the future, travelers between Stuttgart and Munich will save a quarter of an hour, and the new stop on the Swabian Alb has given many people direct access to the rail network in the first place.

But just one day after the opening ceremony, there were already delays on Monday morning (December 12).

As the railway announced, the reason for the breakdown was the error of a train driver.

The head of Stuttgart 21 expressed his sympathy to those responsible, as reported by BW24.

"Poor pig": Stuttgart 21 boss shows compassion for engine drivers and criticizes the media

Olaf Drescher, head of the Stuttgart-Ulm railway project company, is not only responsible for the major Stuttgart 21 project, but also for the new line towards Ulm.

The breakdown on Monday, which was caused by the misconduct of a train driver, he assessed less critically in a lecture at the German Transport Science Society (DVWG).

Rather, Drescher expressed his sympathy for the railway employee.

"The poor pig has now been passed all over Germany," said the project manager, criticizing how the incident was dealt with in the media.

Just one day after the opening ceremony, there were already delays on the new line between Wendlingen and Ulm on Monday morning.

© IMAGO/Walter G. Allgöwer

Drescher is annoyed by the reporting that portrayed the train driver as a "complete idiot", as reported by the

.

"Because of a mistake, there's a huge alarm in the press," he said.

Nobody reports the 99 percent in which it works.

"This is Germany, this is media policy," says the project manager.

Drescher explained that the train drivers had to train and learn new components for the journey over the four-billion-euro route.

They have to register the train for the journey in a four-step process.

In the incident on Monday, the registration was not correct and was therefore stopped by the system.

"The others are always to blame": Netz criticizes Deutsche Bahn for public relations

In the social media there was definitely ridicule for the train chaos on the new line.

However, some users on the Internet also defend the engine driver and see the error in Deutsche Bahn's public relations work.

"I don't understand why the engine driver is being exposed at all.

A reasonable company would not have put the blame on the train driver in the press release," criticized a Facebook user.

Another describes the behavior of the railway as "shabby".

"DB's communication on the incident was definitely amateurish" or "the others are always to blame," commented others.

The users suspect that they probably hadn't trained their employees sufficiently, otherwise "it probably wouldn't have happened".

"If an alleged incorrect operation leads to such a malfunction of the entire system, it is not the operator's fault, but the entire system is too fragile," writes another.

A railway spokeswoman told the

that it was an isolated case.

The train drivers were then sensitized again.