Deutsche Bahn announced in a blog post that the replacement of a network switch on Wednesday night caused a failure of the GSM-R mobile radio system. Without GSM-R, trains are not allowed to operate, bringing all rail traffic in Germany to a standstill. A redundant system was not activated automatically because an error message failed to appear.
After 90 minutes, railway employees manually activated the backup system, allowing the first trains to move again around 12:30 AM. Initial reports of the outage emerged around 10:20 PM. A feared traffic chaos on Wednesday morning did not materialize.
The railway has taken three measures: no further component replacements for now, troubleshooting with the switch manufacturer, and limiting maintenance work to the period between midnight and 4 AM. DB InfraGO CEO Philipp Nagl also stated that the backup system via public mobile networks will be restructured. The 2G-based GSM-R system is expected to be used for at least another ten years until the new FRMCS standard arrives – which has not yet been specified by the EU.
Source: www.heise.de
