Germany: Man arrested for sabotaging high-speed line
Nigel Wordsworth
Railway industry editor, commentator and presenter working with railbusinessdaily.com and others
A man has been arrested for an apparent attempt to sabotage a German high-speed railway line.
According to reports by German magazine Der Spiegel on Friday 20 March, bolts that hold the track down on the Frankfurt-Cologne high-speed line had been loosened over a distance of about 80 metres where the line crosses the Theiss viaduct. 484 metres long, this 11-span, pre-stressed concrete, box-girder viaduct stands up to 50 metres high over a valley and carries the line between two adjacent tunnels.
According to the report, the driver of an early-morning ICE (inter-city express) high-speed train reported an unusual movement as the train crossed the bridge. Engineers immediately investigated and found that the bolts holding the rails down had been loosened, allowing the rails to move so they were up 5cm further apart than they should have been.
The line was immediately closed to traffic and trains diverted.
This wasn’t the first train to use the bridge that morning, and engineers were concerned that, if any more trains had crossed it, the situation could have got worse so that a train could have derailed or even fallen off the viaduct.
Deutsche Bahn (DB) called the incident “sabotage” and police started an investigation.
More details on Rail Insider
It's as vulnerable as it's always been. All that's new here is that a high-speed line was targeted.