alt Hacker NewsTrains halted across Germany because of communication system problem
Comments
There was also a very peculiar train crash in the UK just a few days ago. A train hit a stationary train. That shouldn't really happen in this day and age. Sabotage was the first thing that came to my mind.
"IT Outage: No train service nationwide. Due to a nationwide outage of the GSMR digital rail radio system, all trains are being held at stations. We are working around the clock to resolve the issue.
Our technicians are working around the clock to resolve the outage.
Please continue to check your travel connection immediately before departure using the travel information service at bahn.de, the DB Navigator app, or by calling the travel information hotline at 030/2970."
Word on the german bahn reddit seems to be that a buggy software update is the cause. Remains to be seen if this is the real cause
It's a GSM-R issue. See Tagesschau (German): https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesellschaft/deutsche-bahn-...
The fallback for GSM-R is the normal GSM network, but according to informed guesses I've read, the handsets still need to authenticate using their GSM-R credentials (it's just normal GSM roaming), and that's failing too.
Trains are being started up again (staggered because the current draw of so many accelerating trains could cause problems) since about 10 minutes past midnight, 30 minutes ago.
Any HNer blocked in a DB train who can share with us the experience?
It doesn’t surprise me at all. Deutsche Bahn got so bad in the recent years that Switzerland started turning some German trains around at Basel (border) to protect its own timetable from DB delays.
Same problem happened two years ago. You'd think that would be enough time to figure out a failsafe routine
Interesting, I just took an OBB train today from Zurich to Amsterdam, which passes through a lot of Germany.
A truly chaotic week in Europe, alongside the UK train crash and the unprecedented heat wave.
The jet lag team must be in Germany again. Sam, you being deuschbahnned?
Downdetector shows parallel disruption spikes, similar pattern as end of last year, not as widespread yet. https://downdetector.com
Downdetector shows parallel disruption spikes, similar pattern as end of last year, not as widespread yet.
Anyone else watch Season 2 of Hijack?
Can passengers tell, I thought German trains were always disrupted!
Is that news? Sounds like status quo.
It's the heat.
Some system somewhere in need of cooling.
Does not get it, because BAHN.
Crapping out.
Cascades of disbelief.
R2D2-like cybernetic seizures.
Endless commuter pleasures.
No mischief at all.
Just bad techno-thrall...
Is it just me or is the webpage broken with a redirect loop between:
* https://www.bluewin.ch/en/news/german-train-service-suspende...
* https://www.bluewin.ch/en/news/german-rail-service-suspended...
Honestly can’t tell the difference between this and a regular day r/dbsucks
Happened before at a smaller scale, crazy high redundancies in GSM-R mean this is likely sabotage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2022_German_railway_at...
Gee I wonder which country could be behind it
It's either that or starlink, some railroads in Germany go through areas without any mobile network signal. Think about how crazy that is in 2026 when everything expects everyone to be online 24/7/365.
If this weren’t Deutsche Bahn, I’d say it’s a cyber attack. Given that this is Deutsche Bahn, though, it may just as well be a maintenance issue.