via: sansnom
Berlin/Herne: double sabotage sends rail traffic into turmoil
An act of “sabotage” paralyzes rail traffic in Germany
France24, October 8, 2022 (excerpt)
An act of “sabotage” aimed at radio link cables caused, Saturday, October 8, the paralysis of rail traffic in northern Germany. For nearly three hours on Saturday morning, all high-speed and regional connections in the north of the country were interrupted.
After the partial restoration of traffic, the Deutsche Bahn company said that a “sabotage” was the cause of the failure. This sabotage has targeted “cables essential to the movement of trains,” said the German company to AFP. More precisely, it is the GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway) radio network of the trains used for communication with drivers but also, more generally, “central interface between trains and the infrastructure” of control, according to Spiegel, the first media to mention, citing security sources, suspicions of sabotage.
These “fiber optic cables” were cut in Berlin and in North Rhine-Westphalia (west), the most populated region of Germany, adds the popular daily Bild [Note of Sans Nom: and more precisely in Herne – between Dortmund and Essen – under a bridge at the level of the signal box for the first cable; and in Berlin on the side of Karower Kreuz/Hohenschönhausen along the tracks for the second cable: that is to say, in two different places of the network, 540 kilometers apart, in the west and east of the country].
The incident led to the interruption of connections between Berlin and certain regions in the west and north of the country, such as Schleswig-Holstein, the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, as well as Lower Saxony and parts of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Berlin-Amsterdam connection was also suspended.
Thousands of travelers were stranded in stations on Saturday morning. Cancellations and delays were still expected Saturday in the day despite the restoration of rail services, warned the Deutsche Bahn.
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