Czech Railways is solving problems on the route from Prague to Berlin. Passengers stayed at the border
On Tuesday, the crew of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn refused to take over from the Czech Railways the set that they had delivered as part of the international connection between Prague and Berlin. This is not the first time, it has happened for the third time in two months. Deutsche Bahn follows a measure whereby it can refuse to accept a train if there are fewer cars in the set compared to the announced sorting or if they have defects.
They confirmed the information for Zdopravy server spokesman Czech Railways Petr Šťáhlavsky. “Deutsche Bahn has activated a measure whereby the crews of this carrier can refuse to take over a train if there is more than one less car in the set than the planned shift,” explained Šťáhlavský.
Problems repeatedly appeared on the prestigious route from Prague to Berlin. Passengers will stay in Děčín and have to hope that they can fit into one of the other connections.
“It is for us, because a naturally unpleasant situation has a direct impact on our customers. Moreover, at a time when we are trying to get them back on the trains,” added the spokesperson. Complications also arise the next day after the rejection, as the train is then canceled from Germany.
German railways refused to take over the train for the first time on 19 June. It was train EC 172, which arrived from Hungary and the cars belonged to the carrier MÁV-Start. The reason at that time was a defect – insufficiently efficient air conditioning in the entire train and a problem with the wheel surface of two cars.
The other two cases already related to Czech Railways sets, at the beginning of August, malfunctioning air conditioning in two cars was to blame, and this week, on Tuesday, there was again a fault with the air conditioning and also the surfaces on the wheels.
According to Czech Railways, however, there was no reason to decommission the cars in Děčín. “The defect did not threaten traffic safety and the train could continue on its way to Berlin,” Šťáhlavský said about the rejection of the train in early August. Regarding this week’s incident, he said the malfunction only occurred while driving.
The Zdopravy server recalled that Czech Railways has had a long-standing problem in keeping the promised train scheduling. The trains tend to be overcrowded and there are cases where Deutsche Bahn lets them stop and disembark some people so that staff can walk through the aisles. At the moment, the tracks do not have any more suitable cars.