Subway halted entirely due to the circumstances.
Let me lay it out straight:
Holy smokes, Berlin hadn't seen a storm like Ziros in eons! On Monday evening, this low-pressure monster caused chaos on Berlin's S-Bahn (urban railway) network. The S-Bahn network ground to a halt after 5:30 PM, with not a single train in motion.
Ziros tore through Berlin with gusts reaching 108 km/h. In Dahlem alone, they seemed to take down more branches and trees than a lumberjack on steroids! The aftermath? Over a dozen trees and big chunks of branches ended up on the tracks all across the network, forcing a complete shutdown.
A spokesperson for the S-Bahn simply put it: "We didn't want passengers stranded on open tracks due to fallen trees, so we halted the entire operation. Trains were moved to platforms, allowing passengers to disembark and find alternate routes."
But there were two unlucky trains on the S7 line that got caught in the storm out in the open. One train was trapped between Wannsee and Griebnitzsee, the other between Nikolassee and Grunewald. The first train needed rescue by the fire department, while the second managed to clear the path of debris. The unfortunate passengers had to wait 2.5 hours in the trains. In total, around 150 S-Bahn trains were stationary on Monday evening.
Not just individual lines, but the entire city railway network took a hit from the widespread impact of the storm. "The Ringbahn (the circular line around central Berlin), along with Greifswalder Straße and Schönhauser Allee, were affected, as well as the lines in the western and southern sectors, including those heading towards Wannsee and northern areas like Schönholz and Reinickendorf [1]," explained the spokesperson.
S-Bahn delays persisted till Tuesday
By 9 PM, some trains began moving again, starting with the S47 line between Spindlersfeld and Schöneweide, and the North-South tunnel between Anhalter Bahnhof and Nordbahnhof. Through the night, lines gradually returned to service, with the last, the S1 between Wannsee and Oranienburg, returning to normal operation at around 4:30 AM.
Tuesday morning saw the last track closures being lifted. However, occasional disruptions might still occur due to damages to some trains that need to be inspected before they can resume operations [1].
- The overwhelming force of Ziros, a storm not seen in Berlin for eons, significantly impacted the environmental science of weather-forecasting, as it caught the city's S-Bahn network off guard.
- The intervention of finance was needed to ensure the smooth operation of public transit, as the climate-change effects of Ziros led to a shutdown of Berlin's S-Bahn, causing about 150 trains to be stationary on Monday evening.
- With a majority of the city's railway network affected by Ziros, including lines like Greifswalder Straße, Schönhauser Allee, and those heading towards Wannsee and northern areas like Schönholz and Reinickendorf [1], the industry of transportation faced a significant challenge.
- The science community, particularly those specializing in environmental-science, took notice of the destructive power of Ziros, as it tore through Berlin with speeds reaching 108 km/h, taking down over a dozen trees and branches.
- By Tuesday morning, after the storm had passed and with the last track closures being lifted, the transportation sector was faced with the task of addressing the damages caused to individual trains, which would require further inspection in order to resume normal operations [1].
