Overview
- Deutsche Bahn ordered all trains to stop and hold in stations after a nationwide failure of the GSM-R digital railway radio, with the company confirming the outage to news agencies late Tuesday.
- Technicians have been working to bring trains to stations so passengers can disembark and to restore secure voice and encrypted data links that are required for safe train movement.
- The stoppage affected high-speed ICE trains, regional services and urban lines including Berlin S-Bahn and caused crowding and long delays at major stations as operators paused services for safety.
- Company spokespeople and the CEO said the root cause is under investigation and was said to have been identified, but public technical confirmation and forensic findings have not yet been released.
- GSM-R is a Europe-wide 2G-based safety radio that carries drivers’ voice calls and encrypted operational data, and the outage has renewed scrutiny of Deutsche Bahn’s reliance on that aging system and of broader rail resilience.