Neue Leiden des jungen Bahnfahrers (1)

Accident

When you travel from Eindhoven to Germany you have 7 minutes to change trains. That seems to be a lot but not when the train from Eindhoven is full and late. The incoming train ends on platform 2. I am almost in front of the train and the stairs to get to the other platform are at the end. More time is needed to check out with the OV card used for all public transport in the netherlands. There is exactly one of these check out poles on this platform. All trains end in Venlo, so everybody on the full train has to check out and there usually is a queue. Afterwards I hurry down the stairs together with a mass of fellow travelers, many with a suitcase they have to carry down the stairs. A lot of people use this line to travel to the airport of Düsseldorf Weeze, an airport popular by budget airlines. The toiling is even worse on the other side of the tracks, where a much longer staircase winds up into the station building.

Utrecht CS is the biggest station in the Netherlands

The train to Germany leaves at 16.05 at the far end of the first platform, a long way from the staircase. After I have left the buildings I realize immediately that there is no hurry. There are a lot of people on the platform, but there is no train.

Platform at Utrecht CS

At the scheduled departure time there is still no train. Everybody stares east expecting the arriving train but there is nothing to see but a lot of traffic on a road at the far end of the station including sirens and flashing blue lights of police or ambulance cars. At least there is no rain. In fact, it is pleasant for the time of the year.

Eventually there is an announcement that the train does not run, No reasons given. The next train is about to leave in an hour. I check the website of Deutsche Bahn. The trains on this line are notoriously unreliable, they have a lack of staff, so sometimes trains are canceled for the simple reason that they could not find a driver. But on the website they give another reason for the cancellation. An accident has happened between Venlo and the first German station in Kaldenkirchen. All trains from now on will end in Kaldenkirchen. They predict that this will last for at least another three hours.

I look around and see people checking their phones. So far nobody seems to know what has happened. It is a short ride to Kaldenkirchen. If I want to find a taxi I have to be fast, otherwise there might be none left. I hurry back, through the station hall to the square in front of the station. And fortunately, I see a row of taxis.

I am pointed at one driver. He says he can bring me to the station in Kaldenkirchen, but proposes to go to Viersen, which is much further away. According to his experience trains end there if there is a problem. While we discuss the matter a girl approaches the taxi behind us. I turns out that she also wants to go to Kaldenkirchen and so I invite her to join us and share one taxi. Then we are on our way. I only know this border area through the window of the train. From there you have the impression that you ride in a biotope where little has changed in a century. There were no improvements either. What is left is dereliction. From the window of a car the landscape looks entirely different. The border area consists of big parking lots, car dealers, fast business and ugliness. There is nothing of architectural or aesthetic value. Everything is built for the presence, fast money, profit. Grey concrete and asphalt with gaudy advertising in screaming colors. Cars everywhere, spend and leave. No space for pedestrians. A looser, who walks, cannot carry with him what he has bought.

My new travel companion is Dutch from Rotterdam and has studied medicine. She is on her way to visit her boyfriend in Düsseldorf. There was a problem for the last three times she took this train. Each time it was canceled. Strangely my daughter’s boyfriend also is from Düsseldorf. And she also studies medicine. No, that is where the similarity ends. It is not the same guy. The driver is from Afghanistan. He came to Europe when he was a little kid. He cannot remember his native country. To tell his story we would need to take a very long taxi ride, he says. I thought Afghanistan would be one of the those countries without any train…. ever. But I am wrong. A couple of branch lines extend from neighboring countries into Afghanistan. And the national museum in Kabul even houses three derelict steam engines preserved from the Kabul – Darulaman line. When they are still there….

Not far from our destination we see bus number 1, in the other direction, to Venlo station. It turns out that there is a bus connecting Venlo and Kaldenkirchen and it stops at both stations. The fare for the taxi is more than 21 € for probably less than 5 km. As it turns out later, nobody of the train crew knows about this bus line. And therefore there neither is any announcement that stranded passengers can take the bus between Kaldenkirchen and Venlo instead.

The girl insists to pay her share of the fare. When I was a student I had to save every cent. I was grateful when somebody offered me a free ride, a place to stay or a meal. I tell her to keep her money and instead invite somebody young and penniless when she is older and gets the chance.

The situation at the platform in Kaldenkirchen does not look promising. Some people leave while we arrive. A couple of others on the platform still wait for the train at 16.05, half an hour ago. We tell them that it will not run. Their reaction on our questions is between helpless shoulder shrugging and unfriendliness. There is no information that the line to Venlo is blocked. The notice board informs that the train will be late.

Once Kaldenkirchen was an important border station between the Prussian part of the German empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In addition to the line between Venlo and Mönchengladbach two more lines ended here. The station building is in the middle between two sets of tracks. The building goes back to the opening of the line in 1866. From the layout of the access to the platform it can still be seen how the passengers were ferried from one platform to the station building for customs check and back to the other platform without possibility to escape. International express trains stopped here. As recent as 1990 the station was the third most important border station for freight transit in Germany. Now the station building is fenced off from the tracks. It houses a dance club or cafe. Closed. The low platforms have preserved their Prussian cobblestones. At least partly, since each time there were works they were replaced by a patch of asphalt. The historic underpass of colored bricks with his arched roof is dirty and disfigured by dirty light bars. Potholes in the concrete floor which have replaced the original tiles or cobblestones are marked with red color as if an accident had happened.

Eventually the loudspeaker mutters an announcement that the train going to Venlo will stop on a different track, 2 instead of 3. We are glad. When there is a train to Venlo, it will also have to go back. Shortly afterwards there is another announcement that the train of 16.05 will not run. Again no reasons are given. Eventually a long train packed with people arrives. Everybody gets out, The train will end here and go back. Stranded passengers crowd the platform, helpless. There is no advice how to continue. No announcements.

While those waiting to continue into Germany gladly rush in, the train crew is besieged with questions of the stranded passengers for Venlo. A black guy gets particularly loud. However, they cannot help him. They know that they cannot continue but will go back according to schedule of the train leaving Venlo at 17.05. They explain that somebody has committed suicide by jumping in front of the previous train just when it was approaching Venlo. The guy thrust his ticket to Venlo in their faces and requests transport. We recommend him to share a taxi or wait for the bus. He shouts that he does not have money. He gets louder and louder, leaving unclear what he wants more, money or a chance to continue to Venlo. The train crew retreats into the forward cab of the train.

On the drug dealer train

RE13, the train linking the Ruhr area to Venlo, is in particular popular with people shopping for drugs in the Netherlands, where they are legally sold. That although German customs frequently check the train. The conductor also always check tickets here. And they still always find somebody without.

When the conductor comes for the ticket she tells me that suicides regularly block this line. It has happened to her before. Each time it happens the driver is under shock. On average, a German train driver kills three suicidal people in his career. Depending on speed and weight, it takes hundreds of meters to stop a train. Although it is not their fault, the drivers are under shock. It will take weeks for them to recover and be able to work again. This reduces the availability of staff on the line even more, leading to even more cancellations of trains and even more frustration by passengers.

ICE train in the station of Duisburg

Most of the duped passengers are understanding. But, she continues, there always is the one who starts trouble. It is not the train crews fault that they cannot go where they are supposed to go. But they get the full load of aggression. There are occasions where they are not only insulted but physically hurt. In the end they all get on each other's nerves

Frankfurt, Germany's biggest station

In 2019 more than 9,000 persons committed suicide in Germany. This is almost three times the number of road accident fatalities and almost 12 times the number of homicides. It is the main reason for an unnatural death. Each suicide endangers the mental health of on average 6 other people close to the victim. 75% of the victims are male. What might have been the reason in this case? I am tempted to relate it to the depressing surroundings. However, the suicide rate in Germany is approximately the same as in Switzerland, and nobody will pretend that the Swiss generally live in depressing surroundings. Instead of speculation about possible reasons it might be better to speculate about how everybody can participate by preventing suicide. Therefore I want to finish here with quoting the Berlin Center of suicide prevention. They have identified three misconceptions which lead to a couple of rules helping to prevent suicide in everybody’s surroundings:

Dinner on an ICE

People who talk about suicide do not suicide themselves. Those people, who really want to kill themselves, do not usually talk about it.

Wrong! About 80% of all suicides are announced beforehand.

Nürnberg Hbf

Who once thought about suicide will always think about it.

Wrong! Especially for young people the thought of self-harm or suicide can indicate an acute crisis, which can be overcome alone or with external support.

To address possible suicide thoughts of a person just makes him*her come up with the idea.

Wrong! People who are not at risk, will not suicide themselves when you approach the topic. Those people who are at risk usually feel relieved being able to talk about it.

The station: a popular shelter

Sources:

https://www.suizidpraevention-berlin.de/en/information-about-suicide/