Sturmchaos in NRW: Railway traffic slowly going again!

rail traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has largely normalized after the considerable damage due to a storm low. The clean-up work in nearby and regional traffic has almost been completed, with most of the routes accessible again, as a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn (DB) announced. Nevertheless, some individual routes are still affected, often due to fallen trees that block the track area.

For example, the S12 runs between Blankenberg (victory) and Eitorf only in a track because a tree has fallen onto the tracks. The regional route between Welver and Soest can only be used in a track because a tree has damaged the overhead line. In addition, the RB 52 regional train fails between Lüdenscheid-Brügge and Lüdenscheid, as well as the S9 between Wuppertal Central Station and Essen Central Station. A replacement traffic was set up for the affected routes.

detailed effects of the storm

In the afternoon of the storm, this chaos caused rail traffic, since numerous routes were not passable due to fallen trees and damaged overhead lines. In Welver, 360 passengers from a regional railway had to be evacuated because a tree had fallen on the overhead line. In Bergisch-Gladbach-Gronau, a train driver of S-Bahn line 11 was able to take his train to a stop in front of a fallen tree.

The surveys showed that in the affected regions, especially in East Westphalia, Sauer- und Siegerland, heavy to hurricane-like wind strengths of over 100 km/h were measured with the highest value of 117 km/h in Porta Westfalica. Numerous storm -related operations were recorded in cities such as Krefeld and Bochum; 50 missions were documented in Krefeld alone.

The A560 at Hennef had to be blocked in both directions because parts of the noise barrier had loosened, but this lock was lifted at night. In the late evening, the wind speed in NRW was no longer over 100 km/h, and the situation gradually improved.

Overall, the cumulation of the weather events and the subsequent operations of the emergency services showed how important the preparation and response to such storm situations is to ensure security in rail and road traffic. According to wdr it could take until late in the evening before regional traffic works smoothly again, while the situation in long-distance transport has already stabilized.