Another sabotage attack on the railway

Created: 12/16/2022, 1:55 p.m

Tracks are laid in the ballast bed at a railway station.

© Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa/symbol image

The Deutsche Bahn has been attacked again by saboteurs.

A railway spokeswoman confirmed on Friday that unknown persons broke into a switch house in the Dellwig district of Essen during the day last Sunday and cut cables in switch boxes.

The "Spiegel" had previously reported.

Only freight trains run on the route at the scene of the crime.

Essen/Berlin – Passenger traffic was not affected.

The state security at the State Criminal Police Office has started the investigation, said the railway spokeswoman.

After the damage was discovered, the route was closed for a few hours, according to Bahn.

It was later put back into operation.

Trains were diverted at that time.

"It had almost no impact on traffic," said the railway spokeswoman.

"Our systems have taken effect."

In October, strangers in Herne and Berlin cut the fiber optic cable of the internal railway mobile network, which is used, among other things, by engine drivers and control centers to communicate with each other.

As a result, rail traffic in northern Germany came to a complete standstill for several hours.

There were subsequent delays and train cancellations in other regions throughout the day.

The railways then announced more security checks along the routes, also in cooperation with the federal police.

In the case of objects in need of protection, Deutsche Bahn also wants to check the security concepts in cooperation with the authorities.

In addition, the group wants to arm itself against system failures with additional network capacities, among other things.

dpa