Flood Disaster on European Railways

TCDD General Manager Ali İhsan Uygun sent a Get Well Message to Deutsche Bahn AG Chairman and CEO Richard Lutz

The flood caused by heavy rains that affected Europe caused great damage to the railways. TCDD General Manager Ali İhsan Uygun sent a get-well message to his counterpart, Deutsche Bahn AG Chairman and CEO Richard LUTZ. In his Appropriate Message, he said, “I offer my best wishes to you and the German people, on behalf of myself and the TCDD Family, due to the flood disaster that caused loss of life and significant infrastructure damage in the railways.”

In Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and the Czech Republic, kilometers of railways were destroyed, bridges, culverts and catenary poles were toppled. While flights are canceled in many regions, they can be delayed in some regions.

German Railways (DB) Netz – Member of the Board of Directors Dr. Volker Hentschel said in a statement, “Our infrastructure has never seen such destruction before. Nearly 50 bridges, 40 signal boxes, 180 level crossings, more than 1.000 catenary and signal poles were damaged. A total of 600 kilometers of rails were affected in Germany and 80 stations were damaged. "We assume that the flood caused about 2 billion euros in damage," he said.

Sophie Dutordoir Infrabel, CEO of Belgian Railways (SNCB), said that the infrastructure was hit hard and said, “We estimate the approximate cost of the damage to be between 30 and 50 million euros. But the waters have not yet fully receded. So we have to wait and see before we can make a good guess.” said.

Infrabel; “Hard-to-reach areas were inspected with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles and I can say that the damage is huge. Many rail lines have been closed, bridges have collapsed, mudslides have replaced ballast, and many rail sections and locations are no longer accessible due to ground collapse in the rail infrastructure. Numerous electrical installations and structures were damaged.” used the phrases.

It was learned that at least 40 km of infrastructure was completely damaged, bridges collapsed and catenary poles were overturned in Austria (ÖBB) and Netherlands (NV) Railways. While train services are canceled in the region, they are delayed in some parts. Authorities state that repair and clean-up work may take at least a month.

Czech Railways (CD) manager České Dráhy said, “At the moment we only have one line intact. We are trying to provide transportation on it. We are planning to return to normal flights by the end of July. But the destruction is huge,” he said.

TCDD General Manager Ali İhsan Uygun's get-well message to Deutsche Bahn AG Chairman and CEO Richard LUTZ;

Dear Colleague Mr. lutz,

On behalf of myself and the TCDD Family, I would like to extend my best wishes to you and the German people for the flood disaster that caused loss of life and significant infrastructure damage in many European countries last week. I wish patience to the families of those who lost their lives in the flood disaster and a speedy recovery to those who were injured and share their pain.

Europe is one of the geographies that will be most negatively exposed to the effects of climate change on earth. Unfortunately, as we felt in the last disaster, climate change has important effects in many European countries and our country, and its consequences have started to be seen more and more frequently on economies and ecosystems, especially on human life.

Within the framework of the Climate Plan and Green Agreement put forward by the EU, it has also emerged that the targets set within the framework of the railway being the primary transport mode in Europe should be implemented without compromising. As TCDD, we are ready to contribute to the measures to be taken against climate change, the steps to be taken and the decisions to be taken by the international railway community.

I hope that a similar disaster will not happen again, both in your country and in our world, and I wish you well again.