Storm Xavier in northern Germany

[Groningen]

Xavier has blocked several lines in Germany.

Still closed are:
Hamburg - Kiel - Westerland (Sylt)
Hannover - Hamburg
Hannover - Berlin
Hannover - Bremen
Dortmund - Hamburg
Bad Bentheim - Amsterdam
Rheine - Löhne (Westf)

Thursday afternoon complete Niedersachsen was closed down.

 

[30907]

And Berlin-Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein as far as I can make out. Predictable discussions online about need to close down...

 

[Groningen]

Yes; and also parts of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. There are now 4 confirmed deaths in Germany. Nothing much in the Netherlands. The fireservice in Hamburg had 700 responses in a 2 hour timeframe. Public transport was closed down in Berlin. I just see that a IC is turned in to a Hoteltrain, but fear you have to sit.

Source: Wetteronline.de

 

[duesselmartin]

is the criticism valid? with 6 dead the storm must have been rather severe.
NRW to Hamburg and Berlin is still cancelled.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Wait... But I thought railways on the continent were weatherproof and it was just our rubbish British railways that were made of papier-maché?
Joking aside, deepest sympathy for those bereaved and whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

On a more selfish note, I do hope that any damage to the Brussels-Frankfurt-Nürnberg route can be sorted out within the next week!

 

[Ash Bridge]

First and most importantly my sympathies to all those in Germany affected by this storm. During the early hours of Thursday morning there was a period of very strong winds and rain roughly moving west to east that affected an area from the approximately the the Midlands North Wales and North West England, after clearing the eastern coast of England it appears to have tracked across central to southern parts of The Netherlands before then crossing Germany, what would cause the intensity of this storm to increase so much after crossing both the UK & Holland?

 

[Hornet]

Pressure Chart for midday yesterday acros Northern Germany shows shows a low pressure of 988 millibars, which is nothing unusual in terms of autumnal lows that pass across the UK an Ireland. The October '87 storm in Southern England recorded a low pressure of 960 millibars. The storm that took out Dawlish sea wall in February 2014 was driven by a low pressure of 946 millibars. This was one of a number of very deep lows which hit the UK at the beginning of 2014. We are more used to deeper lows due to our proximity to the Atlantic and prevailing south-westerlies.

Pressure Chart 05/10/2017 @12:00 Northern Europe:-
http://www.willandweather.org.uk/maps/Brack2017100521.gif

Pressure Chart 16/10/1987 @06:00 Southern England:-
https://metofficenews.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/pressure_chart1-1.jpg

Details of the Jan/Feb 2014 winter storms:-
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/interesting/2014-janwind

 

[Ash Bridge]

Many thanks for providing that info, looking at the chart it seems Germany was experiencing something of a North to South split as the pressure remained relatively high from roughly just north of Frankfurt southwards?

 

[Hornet]

Just to add. Just watching Tropical Storm Nate brewing with a low pressure of 999 millibars and sustained wind of 45mph. That's just a light breeze in this part of the world.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/041438.shtml

Hurricane Irma's lowest pressure reading was 914 millibars. Just gives some perspective to the figures in my previous post.

 

[30907]

is the criticism valid?

I would say not - but the discussion mirrored past storm threads on these forums very closely.
Part of the problem seems to be that the trees are still in full leaf so have greater wind resistance and are more likely to topple.

 

[Groningen]

New update on re-opening lines:
Hannover - Berlin: 7/10
Hamburg - Hannover: 7/10
Berlin - Dresden: 7/10
Hamburg – Kiel/Westerland (Sylt): 7/10
Bremen - Hannover: 8/10
Hamburg - Berlin: 9/10
Osnabrück - Hamburg: 9/10
Hannover - Magdeburg - Berlin: 9/10
Leer - Bremen: 11/10

In the update DB says that Hamburg - Hannover is already re-opened, but few lines down they say it is tomorrow.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Looks like one of those nightmare scenarios of weather that worsened during the morning, but only after service had started up and people were busy travelling all over Northern Germany, thus meaning that the priority had to be rescuing blocked trains ahead of any service recovery. With more warning, service can be suspended and passengers advised not to travel. The scale of damage in Berlin, from photos, is clearly considerable and it will certainly take a few days to get everything going again.

 

[Groningen]

Only on the S-Bahn in Berlin 40 trees fell on the tracks.

 

[Groningen]

The Leer - Oldenburg - Bremen will remain shutdown untill at least 15/10.

 

[duesselmartin]

there is a lot of criticism in the media that private operators managed better than Deutsche Bahn.
Apparantly IC train south to north ended for rostering reasons in Dortmund despite the track being clear as far as Osnabrück.

 

[Groningen]

The Metronom and NordWestbahn was also affected by the storm. Once again it is not broken down trains that is the problem; it was falling trees on the tracks. There seems to be critizion about the busservice between Leer and Oldenburg (55 kilometers), but that story is behind a paywall. Die Bahn says that travellers should search for alternative transportation. Olaf Lies that is the person in charge of transportation in Niedersachsen finds that the infrastructure of the tracks must survive such a storm. Of course!

 

[Groningen]

Everything is running again in Niedersachsen. There is a problem untill tomorrow between Hamburg Hbf and Schwerin Hbf, but do not whether it is last week storm related. No IC; just local trains.

 

[duesselmartin]

And the next storm causes major disruption in northern Germany with Hamburg being cut off again.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

All DB trains in Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thurinigia are (were?) cancelled

 

[Adlington]

Situation as of Sunday, 10:30 UK time:
Long-distance trains cancelled on the following routes:
Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Hannover
Bremen - Hannover
Bremen - Norddeich
Münster (Westf) - Norddeich
Dortmund – Bremen - Hamburg
Hamburg - Westerland
Hamburg – Kiel
Hamburg – Lübeck - Puttgarden
Hamburg - Rostock - Stralsund
Hamburg - Berlin
Berlin - Stralsund
Dortmund - Hannover - Berlin

There are no trains to/from the following towns: Bremen, Hannover, Braunschweig, Göttingen, Wolfsburg, Hamburg, Kiel, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig

 

[Groningen]

The name of this new storm is Herwart. There is no line in naming storms in the alphabet in Germany.

 

[33056]

Not just Germany, the Czech Republic is affected as well; have been sitting on a train at Nové Město pod Smrkem going nowhere for the past two hours....

 

[theblackwatch]

Not just Germany, the Czech Republic is affected as well; have been sitting on a train at Nové Město pod Smrkem going nowhere for the past two hours....

Maybe someone should've thought to pack a chainsaw in their baggage!

 

[Groningen]

2 Deaths in the Czech Republic. In the borderarea with Germany windspeeds up to 125 kilometers an hour. It seems to be not just 1 storm, but 2. The other storm is called Grischa. In the harborarea of Hamburg cars are submerged. The most damage in the Netherlands was a tree on a policecar.

Source: RTV Oost

 

[33056]

Maybe someone should've thought to pack a chainsaw in their baggage!

Woo hoo! On the move now after 2 3/4 hours; how far we get beyond Liberec remains to be seen.....

 

[Groningen]

Normally Nové Město pod Smrkem - Liberec is 65 minutes.

 

[33056]

Normally Nové Město pod Smrkem - Liberec is 65 minutes.

It's just taken us four hours and twenty minutes We'll be lucky to get back to Praha by midnight at this rate.....

 

[Groningen]

Still closed also tomorrow:
Dortmund - Bremen - Hamburg (travel via Hannover)
Hamburg - Berlin (travel via Hannover from 14 o'clock on Monday)
Hamburg - Westerland
Hamburg - Kiel
Hamburg - Lübeck - Puttgarden
Hamburg - Rostock - Stralsund
Berlin - Stralsund

Reopening on Monday:
Münster (Westf) - Norddeich

From 14 o'clock:
Hannover - Bremen - Norddeich
Hannover - Berlin