The Anonymous Widower

Set Back As Badgers Undermine 11 km Of Railway

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette International.

These four paragraphs outline the problems.

Deutsche Bahn reports that burrowing badgers have undermined about 11 km of embankment on the Fröndenberg – Unna railway, and repairs are likely to be very expensive and take a long time as the damage is more extensive than expected.

In some places the repairs will be equivalent to new construction, and DB says the planning and approval phase alone could take several years as the route passes through protected environments. Local media reports that the financial viability of reopening is being questioned.

DB first discovered the damage in 2022, and initiated repairs using a concrete spraying process. It also began to examine the rest of the route and 140 sett entrances have now been discovered, leading to an extensive tunnel system which is believed to have a total length of around 1 500 m spread over the entire length of the embankment.

The line runs through a nature reserve, so investigations had to be suspended over the summer until a special permit was obtained. Trees and bushes also needed to be cut back. Regional train service RB54 remains suspended between Unna and Fröndenberg and replaced by buses, extending journey times by 7 min.

Note.

1. The railway appears to be only single-track from Google Maps.
2. Unna station is the Easternmost station of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn.
3. The RB 54 – Hönnetal-Bahn runs between Fröndenberg and Unna.

I wouldn’t be surprised that this serious problem will be resolved by either closing the railway permanently or by using an expensive rebuild.

How Network Rail Deal With Badgers

I did find this document on the Network Rail web site, which appears to be part of a Safety Course.

There is this page on the Network Rail web site, which is entitled Badgers Sett To Keep Their Homes As Railway Works Around.

Unfortunately for the Germans, they seem to have whole armies of badgers, whereas we seem to have just a couple of families in the second document.

It does look like in the video in the second example, that a certain amopunt of psychology is used to persuade the badgers to do, what Network Rail wants them to do.

Sheep And The M62

When I was at Liverpool University in the 1960s, the Veterinary Department had a contract to design fencing to keep the hardy Pennine sheep off the motorway.

They found that the sheep had little difficulty climbing over a six foot high wire mesh fence.

Perhaps DB should ask Liverpool, if they have any tips!

November 17, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Badger, DB, Fencing, Fröndenberg – Unna Railway, Germany, Health and Safety, Liverpool University, M62 Motorway, Network Rail, Sheep