Augsburg (dpa / lby) - After numerous trains were canceled due to the cold, the private company Go-Ahead Bayern is planning a shuttle timetable around Augsburg on Friday. As a result, passengers would have to change trains there if they wanted to continue in the direction of Donauwörth or Ulm, for example. "The current weather situation is causing problems for many," said Managing Director Fabian Amini on Thursday. The company's vehicles could not cope with the black ice on the overhead lines.
Go-Ahead only took over the regional routes around Augsburg, which are used by many people, from Deutsche Bahn (DB) in December. The company is also struggling with staff shortages and can therefore not offer all connections.
According to Amini, nine trains had broken down on the open route almost at the same time on Wednesday. The problem is that the pantographs have switched off and lowered. Due to frozen water in the air pressure system of the vehicles, the customers could not be lifted up to the overhead line again. Now all vehicles would need to be drained and maintained to prevent further problems.
Therefore, according to Go-Ahead, 13 of 56 vehicles were defective on Thursday and failed. Initially, a reduced traffic concept was planned. However, since this is not stable enough, the company is now going into shuttle traffic in the Augsburg network. Around 50 percent of the trains ran in the Allgäu. It has not yet been possible to say when Go-Ahead will resume full operation.
