DB Derailment at Garmisch, 3 June

[Austriantrain]

One thing that I've noticed is that there's a strange tendency in Germany to renovate/demolish things that don't really need to be touched, while ignoring more pressing issues. A good example is in Zittau, where a large and expensive renovation of the platforms and signalling took place. It was really not clear to me why they spent so much money on this (around 45m EUR) for such little traffic, especially given that there's absolutely no sign of any agreement with the Polish PKP regarding the transit route to Liberec.

Yes, modernisation was nice there, but was it really needed?

This is exactly why it doesn't surprise me that this was a maintenance issue. Germany has really severe problems with maintaining public infrastructure, and as others have said, there have to be serious concerns that the rest of the railway network is in a similarly catastrophic state.

A lot of station investment on the continent is for accessibility purposes, Austria is doing a lot of it too.

As to the signaling job in Zittau, I obviously don’t know any details, but if you want to centralize signaling and thus reduce operating costs, you will have to invest too.

Quite often, it is a good idea to combine those two in one operation, because for accessibility, track layout might have to be changed. And if you need possessions, better do everything at once.

So I don’t think investing in Zittau is a bad idea per se. It is just a fact that Germany has been investing too little into infrastructure for at least two decades, ever since they decided that balancing the budget is the *only* thing that counts (it *is* important obviously, but it turned into kind of a religion.)

 

[duesselmartin]

I suspect the project of Zittau was financed by the Saxon government. Local lobbying.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Does Germany have the same problem as France, with all the attention being on new lines and mega-projects like Stuttgart rather than maintaining the classic network?
The UK network had its "nervous breakdown" after the Hatfield derailment in 2000, leading to massively increased maintenance and renewal budgets for Network Rail.
We still talk about "lack of investment", but in reality the network is in much better shape, and is being better monitored, than it was 20 years ago.

 

[Austriantrain]

Does Germany have the same problem as France, with all the attention being on new lines and mega-projects like Stuttgart rather than maintaining the classic network?
The UK network had its "nervous breakdown" after the Hatfield derailment in 2000, leading to massively increased maintenance and renewal budgets for Network Rail.
We still talk about "lack of investment", but in reality the network is in much better shape, and is being better monitored, than it was 20 years ago.

I am not sure if France and Germany can be compared. In France, the disregard for much of the classic network is more or less semi-official. I don’t think it is unsafe but nobody would dispute that the focus is not there (there are exceptions of course).

In Germany, the classic network is hugely important and the number of HSL restricted. I see a disregard for the classic network neither officially, nor in reality. The problem in Germany is rather that investment has been neglected in *all* infrastructure sectors, because 20 years ago they were in really good state (so you could live of that for a while) and the focus was on containing public spending.

Let’s just hope that a turnaround is possible before a German „Hatfield“ (or maybe Garmisch will be it, depending on what they find out).

 

[KeithMcC]

Recent article in New Civil Engineer advising that a programme of sleeper inspections is being undertaken and defects have been found with resulting speed restrictions and replacement.
The investigation into the Garmisch derailment isn't finished but this seems to give a fairly good view on the most likely cause.
Deutsche Bahn to inspect 200,000 railway sleepers after fatal crash

 

[duesselmartin]

Consequences are now felt all over the country with ad hoc building sites.
Currently in my region, Oberhausen to Duisburg is affected.

 

[BRX]

So is it basically that defective sleepers allowed the track to spread?

 

[duesselmartin]

So is it basically that defective sleepers allowed the track to spread?

Not official yet but the preliminary report suggests that.
That is why DB Netze is acting now checking sleepers.