Rhine valley still closed-DB Netz urged to act
The landslide in the Middle Rhine Valley on 15 March continues causing significant disturbances on rail freight operations. After the incident, restoration works have been going on for more than three weeks now, while there is no concrete forecast regarding the return to normal operational conditions. According to the rail infrastructure manager DB Netz, the trains should run as soon as possible. However, safety comes first, meaning that traffic restoration could, and most probably will, require more time than initially planned.
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Lack of redundancy and/or lack of backup-solutions seems to be a standard-issue within the nowadays railway system. IMHO this is caused by:
1) an inefficient ‘too-much-cost-efficiency’-policy,
2) the so-called ‘mono-scenario-planning-principle’ towards infrastructure capacity, and
3) on phys tech level the so-called ‘Fail-Safe’-principle (STOP if safety-tech fails), instead of applying the much more resilient ‘Fail-ContinueSafe’ design principle.
Swift action is needed to solve these issues.
it is time after Rastatt and Kerstel that SNCB CFL and SNCF offer alternative routing via the Liège- Luxembourg- Mulhouse corridor