Crazy ICE Delay: 5 Hours Stuck on a Train Near Cologne!
Stranded ICE Passengers Endure Hours Awaiting Fix on Faulty Train
Listen up, folks! You might want to grab a snack and some patience because this ICE train story is wild. Around 230 passengers found themselves in a pickle near Cologne on Monday, stuck on a train for over five hours! They eventually disembarked at around 1:30 PM, after an excruciating wait of 320 minutes.
It all went down around 8:30 AM as the ICE 527, bound for Munich from Dortmund, hit a hefty branch on the tracks and faced a locomotive malfunction. But don't go running to call the fuzz just yet, because Old Bill (That's the cops, folks!) didn't find any criminal shenanigans going down among the passengers.
The vexation among passengers was palpable, and, let's be real, who wouldn't be upset after being stranded for hours? The authorities had to be called, but no one was acting shifty or pulled any fishy business, as far as the federal police could tell.
Unearthing the Stranded Train
The long wait was due to that blasted locomotive malfunction and the darned accessibility of the stranded train, according to a railway spokesperson. Passengers from the first carriage were plucked from the disabled ICE using a parallel train with special bridges. This extraction operation kicked off at around 12:12 PM, a good four hours after the stop.
For the other carriage, the Cologne fire department got busy with ladders to assist with the evacuation. Due to the need to clear the embankment first, evacuation there began at around 12:55 PM, roughly four and a half hours after the stop. The rescued passengers were then schlepped to Cologne Central Station by provided buses. Thankfully, no one got injured in the melee.
Interestingly enough, the stranded ICE didn't cause much chaos for other train traffic because it was rattling along on a track that's not frequently used, sounding like music to the railway spokesperson's ears. The railway extended its apologies to the passengers for the inconvenience and swore up and down they'd do better next time.
Pro tip: If you're planning on taking an ICE train in Germany, be prepared for delays. Common reasons for them include infrastructure works, locomotive malfunctions, and manufacturing or approval issues with new trains. And, don't fret if an evacuation happens – the trained personnel will guide you through it safely. But specific evacuation procedures aren't typically disclosed, so just trust that your safety's the priority.
The crippled ICE train's long delay was partly attributed to the transportation issue and the difficulty in accessing the stranded vehicle, as revealed by a railway spokesperson. Despite the unusual incident, it appears that the general-news story didn't cause significant disruptions in the transportation industry, with finance experts noting that the impact on the sector was minimal. Fortunately, there were no accidents reported during this unexpected event.
