A broken signal booth on Thursday almost completely paralyzed operations at Cologne Central Station. The effects could last until Saturday.
Almost nothing has been circulating at Cologne central station since Thursday morning: a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson said no trains could pass through the station due to damage to the signal booth. As a result, there are significant delays and cancellations. Only the S-Bahn could drive. Deutsche Bahn announced that the outage could last until Saturday.
The reason for the signal booth failure was the ingress of water, the railroad spokesman said. In the morning, water damage occurred outside the main station, water then flowed into the station and damaged the signal booth. The technicians are working hard to eliminate the fault.
Cologne Central Station: Repairs take a long time
In the morning, DB employees and firefighters had pumped tens of thousands of liters of water from the signal booth, which had flowed from the Cologne city area and, according to information, “much of the signal booth technology “were irreparably destroyed.
In the afternoon, technicians were replacing dozens of defective terminal blocks. The cables needed to be replaced. Each terminal block and cable must be measured and tested after reinstallation. These tests in particular take a long time, according to the railroad. Only after everything has been checked and approved can the signal booth be put back into operation. Employees from other regions of North Rhine-Westphalia support their colleagues in Cologne.
