Rail traffic around Bochum is again affected. According to the police, copper cables have now been stolen after fiber optic cables were severed last week. It is not yet clear how long the disruption will last.
There are currently no trains running or stopping on the route section – long-distance traffic, various regional trains as well as the RE1 and S1 are affected. The trains are diverted via Herne and Gelsenkirchen, come too late or sometimes fail.
In the meantime, the police have confirmed that the current case is a cable theft, but fiber optic cables have also been damaged – the signal box is affected by Bochum. The route has been disrupted since early morning at 3:30 a.m. How long the disruption lasts is still unclear, according to the German Rail – A replacement bus service has now been set up for some lines between Essen and Dortmund.
There had already been problems on the track last week. Also in Bochum, unknown persons had cut through the fiber optic cable of the railway. As a result, rail traffic was Ruhr area been disturbed for more than a day.
A spokeswoman for the federal police said that it was not exactly the same place, but again a section in Bochum-Ehrenfeld. A railway spokesman said that this time it was not fiber optic cables that were stolen, but copper cables. The data for the signals in the interlocking also runs via these cables. Whether the two cases are related is being determined. The police are also looking for people who may have observed something. (GlobeEcho)