Yesterday evening at around 10:20pm, all trains across Germany came to a standstill for about two hours. Although the situation was resolved after midnight, it caused severe disruptions for all passengers of ICE, Regio and S-Bahn trains in Berlin and beyond. At BER airport, many felt stranded as buses could not accommodate the demand of all people wanting to reach the city.
According to Deutsche Bahn, the situation was caused by a “network-wide disruption in the communication system”; specifically, there was a malfunction of the GSM-R radio system. GSM-R stands for ‘Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway’ and is the system used for practically all radio communications at Deutsche Bahn. Without it, almost no information exchange between railway staff was possible.
Although DB issued taxi and hotel vouchers to some passengers, their supply could not meet demand. Furthermore, passengers at Berlin Hbf and other stations felt that information about the situation was lacking. Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder, as well as Brandenburg’s Infrastructure Minister Robert Crumbach (SPD), among others, demanded a full investigation and consequences for Deutsche Bahn for the disruptions caused. Initial findings suggest that the scheduled replacement of a technical component in the GSM-R system caused the issue.
