The incident highlights the importance of an effective and safe maintenance program for both overhead electrification and pantograph equipment on electric trains, a topic which will be explored further in the upcoming issue of Electric & Hybrid Rail Technology magazine.
According to the ProRail report, a broken overhead wire, which had been “incorrectly repaired,” fell on a DB Cargo train as it was passing and as it was still live, the cars onboard caught fire. The incident happened on Wednesday September 14, 2022.
The DB Cargo train was running towards Roosendaal at 1:04pm when the incident happened. The train consisted of 25 wagons containing hybrid cards. As it passed the Vossendaal level crossing in Etten-Leur, the contact wire of the overhead line broke.
The train’s pantograph then became entangled in the overhead wires. As a result, the overhead wire was pulled along by the train for 800m. The wire ended up on the wagons and cars. According to the ProRail report, fire then broke out in three places because the overhead wire was still under tension during the break.
At that moment, a ProRail employee at the operations control center for infrastructure (OBI) received a signal that the overhead line had been switched off. The employee could not see the direct cause of this shutdown. A power outage due to overload is not unusual at that location, for example when two freight trains run close behind each other and demand too much power from the electricity network. To prevent problems caused by such overload, the protection system switches off the power supply.
The employee at the OBI assumed that there was an overload and tried to restore electrical operations. He then saw in his systems that business operations were restored. There is tension again on the broken contact wire.
The voltage then no longer switched off automatically because an overhead line switch broke during this operation, causing the protection to not work. The result was that electricity continued to flow for another 18 minutes. This caused the fire to grow bigger. When the fire brigade arrived on the scene, OBI switched off the power to a larger area and the power went off from the broken overhead line.
Ultimately the fire destroyed 42 cars and four wagons. No train traffic was possible between Breda and Roosendaal for two days because of the repair work. After the incident, ProRail checked whether more “incorrect repairs” had been carried out on the overhead lines. Where necessary, repair work was subsequently carried out.
The incorrect emergency repair was necessary because there was wear and tear on the overhead lines. If an overhead line becomes thin, it is more likely to break. The contact wire was temporarily repaired by installing a so-called “additional wire” because the replacement of the contact wire had already been planned.
Installing additional wires is no longer permitted, because this repair method leads to greater damage and more inconvenience if the wire breaks there. Moreover, there is an increased risk that the additional wire will be dragged along by the pantograph of the train.
To prevent the use of additional wires in the railway sector, ProRail has laid down in maintenance contracts which methods are permitted for repairs to overhead lines. “We periodically check compliance with these agreements,” it noted. “After this incident, the contracts and repair work were immediately checked.”
ProRail also confirmed that from now on, OBI employees will always first contact the train service director in the affected area before carrying out any power restoration work.