Twenty-five years ago, an ICE derailed in Eschede, Germany’s worst train accident to date. 101 people died. How did the accident change the concept of safety on the railways?
Eschede – name of a town in Lower Saxony that represents the worst railway accident in the history of the Federal Republic: 101 dead. More than 100 other passengers were injured.
On June 3, 1998, ICE “Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen” was traveling at 200 km/h from Munich to Hamburg when a tire ruptured and a series of unfortunate events ensued. The rear of the train eventually derailed at two switches in front of a road bridge on the railway line, causing the bridge to collapse. The wagons below jostled against each other like folding rules.
After the accident, Deutsche Bahn drew consequences: Railway spokesman Achim Stauss explained that all ICE trains are equipped with so-called integral wheels – ie wheels cast from a single piece of steel so that the wheel tires do not break. In addition, the monitoring of the wheels has been improved through ultrasonic detection. Also, on the line under construction, the point in front of the bridge is no longer used. And: On many routes, there are now so-called impact protections in front of bridges – concrete blocks designed to prevent a derailed train from causing the bridge to collapse.
On June 3, 1998, hundreds of helpers searched for survivors among the wreckage of a crashed ICE — carriages jostling against each other like folding rules.
Accidents at Bad Aibling and Hordorf
However, the reasons for the train collisions vary. Even after the Eschede accident, there have been serious train accidents in Germany that have resulted in multiple deaths: In February 2016, two regional trains collided head-on on a monorail near Bad Aibling in Bavaria, resulting in 12 people died. Eighty-nine people were injured, some seriously. A dispatcher responsible for controlling and regulating traffic on a route in a signal box is distracted by a game on his smartphone. However, victims and relatives also hold the railways responsible – as parts of the technology are outdated.
In January 2011, two trains also collided head-on on a monorail near Halldorf in Saxony-Anhalt. Ten people died and more than two dozen were injured. Again: human error. The locomotive of the freight train may have hit a stop signal. Here, too, there was criticism of Deutsche Bahn: the automatic emergency braking system, which would have prevented freight trains from colliding with regional trains, had not yet been installed in Chodorf at the time. Bahn spokesman Stauss said such emergency braking systems are now available throughout Germany.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Errors in the railway network
In June 2022, a regional train derailed near Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, killing five people. Another 78 passengers were injured, 16 of them seriously. The concrete sleepers that are supposed to securely hold the rails in the ballast bed may have been damaged and thus were the main cause of the accident. Nearly a year later, the Federal Railroad Accident Investigation Bureau came to that conclusion.
As a result of the accident, a special inspection and replacement of concrete ties was initiated; ties in the rail network will now be inspected more closely. Deutsche Bahn announced this week that 480,000 concrete ties will be replaced this year alone, five times more than usual. According to the group, this will lead to 400 additional construction sites on the rail network and affect the punctuality of trains.
source of error modernization backlog and Safety culture
The Pro Bahn passenger association has criticized the German railway system for needing more money to make rail safety as technically as good as possible. Karl-Peter Naumann, honorary president of the association, said that full digitization is needed so that it is less likely for people to make mistakes like the one in Bad Aibling. “Obviously the politicians really (…) have to invest properly in the infrastructure of the system in order to really build in the greatest possible security. That’s very important.”
Digitization alone is not the solution, says Birgit Milius, a civil engineer and professor of railway operations and infrastructure at the Technical University of Berlin. “Technology can certainly support people. Technology can also make systems more secure. We always have to look at how we can properly engage people.”
According to Milius, a good safety culture is also important. Garmisch-Partenkirchen, for example, is like a mind game: “What should I do as an employee when I know my line is so hard on the limit—maybe my gut even tells me I’d rather block it because I It’s important to know?” On the other hand, if a line closes again, there’s also a lot of public pressure. Then you need employees to say, “I’ll do it anyway, and I have my boss’s back.”
“Safety over punctuality”
Bahn spokesman Stauss stressed that “safety takes precedence over punctuality and efficiency”. Just because the web is getting old doesn’t mean it’s insecure. Then it will be driven more slowly in some places. And: “We all have situations from time to time where someone is standing on the platform and the train doesn’t really offer what people are expecting: different cars, different vehicle models,” Stauss said. “The reason for this is usually something like, for example, a defect found when ICE visited the factory that wouldn’t cause an accident, but it’s not good.” When in doubt, stop the train.
So how safe do you feel when traveling by train in Germany after 25 years in Eschede? Train operations researcher Milius, who travels a lot by train, said she always felt safer on a train than in a car. Naumann from the Passengers’ Association believes the rail system is by far the safest form of transport. “Given that we make 50,000 train journeys a day, sometimes at high speeds and with heavy loads, there are only a few accidents,” rail spokesman Stauss said. He admits, of course, that it’s cold comfort to the wounded.