After an arson attack on a railway cable shaft, a letter claiming responsibility from a suspected left-wing extremist appeared on Friday afternoon. The Federal Police became aware of the letter on Friday evening. As a spokesman for the authority confirmed, the State Security Police has taken over the investigation.
According to the article, which was published on the online platform Indymedia, the incident in Berlin is part of a series of attacks. Railway infrastructure in Bremen and Hamburg was also targeted by the same actors. The authors of the letter are calling for the sabotage of infrastructure worldwide. Deutsche Bahn was targeted because it is “a military actor in Europe”.
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During the night, a fire broke out in a railway cable shaft in Charlottenburg. As a result of the fire, several signals and switches between the main station and Spandau cannot be operated, and there have been restrictions on long-distance, regional and suburban train services. The stop in Spandau has been cancelled.
Arson attack causes chaos at Berlin Central Station
The railway is expecting restrictions to remain in place until next week, especially in Berlin. Chaos broke out at the main train station on Friday. On the platforms, police officers used megaphones to ask passengers to keep the stairwells clear and to spread out across the entire platform. To avoid overcrowding, passengers had to wait in front of cordoned off escalators to access the platform.
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At the foot of the escalator to the closed platforms, a railway employee stood with a megaphone and only allowed passengers on the trains that were about to arrive to go up. But the announcements were only audible to the first few rows behind the barrier tape due to the mass of people, the traveler reported.
Up on the platform, a railway employee, when told that his colleague downstairs could hardly be understood and that he should just walk through the rows, said: “I know.” And shrugged his shoulders.
A railway employee uses a megaphone to announce which passengers are allowed to enter the platform.
Travelers should currently expect delays of between 15 and often 45 minutes, according to screens at the main station. However, according to the traveler, the train was doing its very best to deal with the chaos.
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Restrictions until next week
Following the arson attack, Deutsche Bahn is expecting restrictions on train traffic until next week. Technical experts from the railway are working to repair the damage as quickly as possible. “Because several cables are affected, the repair work will continue over the weekend. Train traffic will probably remain restricted until the beginning of next week,” the company said. The company has ruled out a technical cause for the fire in a cable shaft.
Cable fire in Berlin: Regional trains affected
- Trains of the Line RE4 will be diverted in both directions between Ludwigsfelde and Berlin Spandau. The stops Berlin Lichterfelde Ost, Berlin Südkreuz, Berlin-Potsdamer Platz and Berlin Jungfernheide will be cancelled. Additional stops will be made in Berlin Ostkreuz, Berlin Ostbahnhof and Berlin Zoologischer Garten.
- Trains of the Line RE6 between Berlin Charlottenburg and Hennigsdorf are cancelled in both directions.
- Trains of the Line RB10 will be diverted in both directions between Berlin Spandau and Berlin Zoologischer Garten with an additional stop in Berlin Charlottenburg. The Berlin Jungfernheide, Berlin Hbf, Berlin Potsdamer Platz and Berlin Südkreuz stops will be cancelled.
- Trains of the RB14 Lines between Nauen and Berlin Südkreuz are cancelled in both directions.
- Trains of the RB21 lines between Berlin Spandau and Berlin Gesundbrunnen are cancelled in both directions.
Signals and switch controllers cannot currently be operated, it was announced at midday. “Several hundred long-distance, regional and suburban trains as well as freight trains are running with significant delays or have to be cancelled, and many goods are not reaching their destination on time,” said the railway.
The ring line is interrupted
Since Friday night, long-distance, regional and S-Bahn traffic has been severely affected by the cable fire in Charlottenburg. The ring line was interrupted, as the S-Bahn Berlin announced at around 4 a.m. Due to “vandalism in the Jungfernheide area,” trains on lines S41 and S42 would not run between Westend and Beusselstraße, it said.
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In the morning, the line closure was temporarily extended. According to the S-Bahn, train traffic was also interrupted between Beusselstraße and Gesundbrunnen between 9:30 and 11 a.m.
Cable fire in Berlin: Federal police suspect arson
As a spokesman for the Federal Police told the Tagesspiegel, there was a cable fire in a shaft at around 3 a.m. “It is probably not a technical defect, but presumably arson,” the spokesman said at the time.
According to the Berlin fire department, cables were burning in a shaft on the railway embankment between the Beusselstrasse and Jungfernheide stations near Neues Ufer in Charlottenburg over a length of around five metres. The fire was quickly extinguished, a spokesman told the Tagesspiegel.
Restrictions also in regional and long-distance transport
The railway has also had to deal with restrictions on long-distance and regional services since the morning. The section between Berlin Central Station and Berlin-Spandau was affected, the railway announced. The stop in Berlin-Spandau was therefore cancelled.
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Long-distance trains were diverted via the northern outer ring to Berlin-Gesundbrunnen and the main station. This delayed them by around 20 minutes. Trains in regional traffic were also diverted, were delayed or stopped at certain stops. The lines RE4, RE6, RB10, RB14 and RB21 were affected.
As a spokesman for the S-Bahn told the Tagesspiegel when asked, the “disruptions caused by the fire were considerable.” Only once the federal police have completed their investigations can S-Bahn technicians begin the necessary repair work.
According to the S-Bahn, the S41 ran between Beusselstraße, Gesundbrunnen, Ostkreuz, Südkreuz, Westkreuz and Westend every ten minutes. The S42 also ran between Westend, Westkreuz, Südkreuz, Ostkreuz, Gesundbrunnen and Beusselstraße every ten minutes.
Cable fire in Berlin: Replacement bus service set up
A replacement bus service has been set up between Westend and Beusselstraße. The stops for the replacement service are: Westend S-Bahn station: Spandauer Damm (like bus M45), Jungfernheide S+U-Bahn station: Tegeler Weg (like bus 109) and Beusselstr. S-Bahn station: Beusselstr. (like buses 106, 123, N26).
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Passengers should also use the services of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) to avoid the route: between S+U Tempelhof and S+U Wedding the U6, between S+U Hermannstraße and S+U Gesundbrunnen the U8, between S+U Bundesplatz and S+U Westhafen the U9 and between S+U Neukölln and S+U Jungfernheide the U7.
