Germany - rail services, ticketing and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

The head of Germany's railway company, Deutsche Bahn, is stepping down after the company admitted spying on thousands of its employees.  Chief executive Hartmut Mehdorn is quitting after running the firm for nearly a decade.
The firm admitted that it conducted a surveillance operation on staff, intended to tackle corruption.  Mr Mehdorn said he had not been aware of the spying but expressed regret over what had happened.
Deutsche Bahn, the country's biggest public company, has previously confirmed it employed investigators from a detective agency in Berlin to carry out covert surveillance operations on its employees. It has also admitted monitoring staff emails to check whether they were being critical of the company's policies.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7971969.stm

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Germany and Hannover 96 goalkeeper Robert Enke has died after being hit by a train in an apparent suicide, police have confirmed. Enke, 32, was fatally injured at a level crossing northwest of Hannover.

The German football federation (DFB) said in a statement: "The German team has learned of the death of Robert Enke with great shock.

Germany coach Joachim Loew and manager Oliver Bierhoff added: "We are all shocked, we are speechless."

Enke's daughter Lara died in 2006 of a rare heart condition when she was just two. He leaves behind his wife, Teresa, and an eight-month-old daughter the couple had adopted in May.

German police released a statement saying: "The victim is apparently national team goalkeeper Robert Enke from Hannover 96. The first police indications are that it was a suicide."

Enke was struck by a regional train travelling between Norddeich and Hannover at a railway crossing in Neustadt am Rubenberge and died at the scene.

He played eight times for Germany and also for clubs Jena, Borussia Moenchengladbach, Benfica, Barcelona, Fenerbahce and Tenerife, before returning to the Bundesliga with Hannover in 2004.

Enke made his international debut aged 31 and became Germany's number one keeper after Jens Lehmann retired from internationals at the end of Euro 2008.

He had missed Germany's last four matches with a virus but returned for his club at the weekend.

Loew had indicated that Enke was in pole position for the number one jersey at next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.

Dr Theo Zwanziger, president of the DFB, said that the football community in Germany "are deeply distressed and in mourning", adding: "All our sympathy goes to the wife of Robert Enke and his family."

The Germany squad is currently in Bonn ahead of a friendly against Chile on Saturday, but Enke had been left out of the squad having only just returned to action for his club.

Fans were flocking to Hannover's Niedersachsen Stadion on Tuesday night to lay flowers and light candles for the captain of their club.

A news conference has been scheduled for 1230 GMT on Wednesday.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Video report, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

A dispute over the redevelopment of a station in Germany has moved from a local planning row to a national issue and a major political headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The project to develop Stuttgart's terminal has attracted thousands of demonstrators each week, but local protests are now shifting to a wider movement against the government, in the heartland of the ruling party.

[eightf48544]

Having been in Stuttgart in September an seen the protests I can partly see their point, it will cause ten years worth of disruption to the station and the adjacent parkland. However when finished it will release a huge area of land North of the exisiting station which comprises the exisiting station approaches. Which can be redeveloped as housing/business parks. Stuttgart is a particulay cramped city hemmed in on three sides by quite high hills. 

It is an interesting operating dilemna for DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) in that there is now a conflict between the HBF concept (single large station for each city) and the high speed ICE services. This especialy so when the Hbf is a terminal staion which many are. Stuttgart being a case in point. All ICE's from the Rhine/Frankfurt to Munich/Austria have to reverse in Stuttgart thus adding at least 10 minutes or so to the journey times.

By building a through station linking directly to the NBS (Neu Bau Strasse) High speed lines considerable savings can be made to journey times on trains passing through Stuttgart. However these shortened journey tiems are of no benefit to Stuttgart passengers as their journeys will take much the same time whther they get on in the exisitng station or teh new underground through station.

There was an  article in October's editon of Todays Railways Europe outlining the whole scheme

[willc]

NBS means Neubaustrecke (new build route). I'd be a bit worried about them running ICEs on streets (Strasse)

[JayMac]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

At least 10 people are reported to have died in a train crash in eastern Germany.

A local passenger train and a goods train collided head-on in the state of Saxony-Anhalt late on Saturday, near the city of Magdeburg.

The passenger train, the HarzElbeExpress, was travelling on a single track section between Magdeburg and Halberstadt.

The cause of the crash, which left 33 injured, is unclear.

Several carriages were derailed after the collision near the village of Hordorf at about 2230 (2130 GMT).

"Rescue operations are still ongoing. The death toll may well rise further," said regional police spokesman Frank Kuessner said.

More than 150 firemen, police and rescue workers were at the scene, AFP reported.

The passenger train "was the last train of the evening out of Magdeburg" on the line - a single track on which overnight engineering work was scheduled.

A spokesman for Veolia, the company which runs the HarzElbeExpress service, said that the train had a capacity of about 100 people. About 45 people were on board at the time of the crash.

Edit to update link - Graham

[eightf48544]

Deepest sympathy.

I've travelled on that line on several occasions over the years from 1996 and seen the steady upgrade of the old DDR railways.

In 1996 it was still the big Russian 232s Ludmillars , then the DDR's answer to the V200 and WR Warships the 219 U-boat,  and then then ex DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) 218's rabbits and now modern units. The operator has also been privatised with Veolia although branded a HEX.

 



 

[JayMac]

A little more information on the collision from Deutsche Welle:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14804340,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-rdf

[JayMac]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

At least two people were killed and 20 injured in western Germany when a passenger train hit a tractor-trailer on a level crossing, police say.

The accident happened near the town of Ibbenbueren when the train, from Osnabrueck, struck the vehicle which was carrying manure, officials added.

Three of those injured were said to be in a serious condition.

Initial reports said the vehicle got stuck while trying to cross the railway line, police said.

Police spokesman Jochen Laschke said the incident happened in a rural area close to Ibbenbueren which is about 23km (15 miles) west of Osnabrueck.

"We got an emergency call at 11:31 (09:32 GMT) and rescue team, fire fighters and psychologists from all over the region were activated to help."

Parts of the farm vehicle were strewn along the side of the track

"The train was very crowded," he said.

Mr Laschke said that after hitting the tractor-trailer, the train came to a halt about 200m (650ft) down the track. He added that the driver of the tractor had not been injured.

Footage from the scene showed parts of the tractor on one side of the tracks and a tank that had been carrying the manure on the other side.

The front of the train was badly damaged with windows and metal parts torn away.

German media said the train, which had been heading to Ibbenbueren, was operated by private rail company Westfalenbahn.

A video news report accompanies the article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32764373

[TeaStew]

I stumbled across this and do not recall it being posted here before, some may find it a pleasant distraction. Seems to be a live feed of various transport in Berlin and although I do not really know the city it is mesmerising.

http://fahrinfo.vbb.de/bin/help.exe/dn?L=vs_mobilitymap&&tpl=fullmap&tabApp=show&initialX=13354846&initialY=52478287&initialZ=3936&

[patch38]

That's fantastic - it's like a ground-based version of Flightradar24!

[chrisr_75]

That reminds me of something that used to be on an obscure analogue Sky channel late at night (no, not that...). They used to just show continuous footage recorded from the front of trams across various European cities, mostly German I think. That also was surprisingly addictive to watch!

We're almost at the point of having something like this with London buses real time arrivals - the data just needs to be plotted out on a map. It would be quite useful/interesting for other forms of public transport.

[bobm]

There is this one for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) - http://traintimes.org.uk/map/#bhm

Not quite the same - but if you chose a station it will show you where trains due to call are at the current time.

[Electric train]

Berlin, I had a great time a month ago using the U-bahn and S-bahn to get around

[Surrey 455]

They have a mobile app that lets you use your phone as your tageskarte (1day travelcard). I eventually decided not to use it because the terms and conditions state that you must carry recognised photo ID. I didn't have my driving licence and wasn't prepared to keep my passport on me either. A shame because the Berlin (and every other German city I have been to) S+U bahn ticket machines only take cash or German cards.