A fully occupied ICE traveling on the Berlin-Munich route was stranded near Zahna in Saxony-Anhalt on Friday after an overhead line fell onto the moving train shortly before 12:00, leaving around 600 passengers stuck without power. Deutsche Bahn said the train stopped near Zahna-Elster and that the line failure knocked out electricity on board.
Passengers described a long and stifling wait. One traveler said, “Wir sitzen seit 3,5 Stunden fest. Ohne Strom. Es ist heiß.” Another said, “Es sind schon mehrere Menschen umgekippt.” Reisende also reported broken windows, and according to BILD information, several passengers were injured by glass splinters. Paramedics treated injured people on the train in the afternoon.
The disruption hit one of Germany’s busiest long-distance links. The section is part of the main line between Berlin and Halle, and Deutsche Bahn said trains between Berlin, Halle and Leipzig were being diverted via Dessau and Wiesenburg, adding about 40 minutes to travel time. The stop in Lutherstadt Wittenberg was canceled and Dessau became the replacement stop.
At first, Deutsche Bahn said passengers would continue by bus because a replacement train could not be used after the power was switched off. Later, the railway said the fully occupied train was towed to Lutherstadt Wittenberg, where passengers were changing to a new train. A spokeswoman said, “Wir haben noch keine Prognose, wie lange es zu Verspätungen kommen wird.”
The incident brought the Berlin-Munich connection to a standstill in the middle of the day and left dozens of trains taking a slower route through Saxony-Anhalt. For passengers on board, the immediate problem was not the delay itself but the heat, the lack of power and the uncertainty over when they would finally get moving again.
