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Broken rails near Elze: blasting after train derailment today!
Derailment of a freight train in Elze: railway line closed, demolition of the damaged tracks planned for December 28, 2025.
Broken rails near Elze: blasting after train derailment today!
A serious incident occurred in the Hildesheim district: Today, December 28, 2025, a freight train derailed near Elze. The accident happened on the day before Christmas Eve when several wagons of a freight train came loose and collided with an oncoming freight train. Fortunately, there were no injuries. However, the train driver suffered a shock and is being cared for. However, the impact on the rail infrastructure is dramatic.
The railway line between Elze and Nordstemmen is currently closed, and experts expect the closure to last until the beginning of January. The derailment caused massive damage to the railway systems: several hundred meters of railway sleepers were destroyed, the rails were bent, and the signals and overhead line masts were also damaged. Due to this extensive destruction, parts of the railway line will have to be blown up today between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. These measures could also lead to restrictions on access to federal highway 1, which could further aggravate the already tense traffic situation. As [n-tv.de](https://www.n-tv.de/regionales/niedersachsen-und-bremen/Entgleister-Zug-Kaputte-Schienen- Werden-ge Sprengt-id30182768.html) reports, work is underway at the damaged areas in order to get the tracks back into operation as quickly as possible.
Impact on regional transport
The derailment also has a direct impact on regional traffic. The RE2 line between Hanover and Göttingen is affected. Affected trains end in Barnten if they come from Hanover and in Banteln if they come from Göttingen. In order to continue to support travelers, an emergency bus service was set up between Barnten and Banteln, which also serves the towns of Nordstemmen and Elze. The railway recommends checking the current connections on the Metronome website, as longer travel times are to be expected and possibly incorrect displays in the electronic timetable information, as bahnblogstelle.com points out.
Prevention and security in the future
In order to avoid similar incidents in the future and to improve safety in rail transport, initiatives have already been launched at European level. An example of this is the D-RAIL project, which is concerned with reducing freight train derailments. Before 2013, there were over 600 derailments in Europe, causing annual costs of over 200 million euros. The EU is therefore relying on new monitoring and mitigation systems to strengthen the European rail system, as cordis.eu describes. The aim is to find cost-effective solutions to minimize or prevent derailments in order to reduce both economic and social burdens on rail transport.
In times when rail transport is becoming more and more important, the importance of such safety measures becomes even more clear. The efforts of the EU and regional transport companies are therefore essential to promote the attractiveness of rail and minimize negative impacts on the environment. While the clean-up work in Elze continues, it remains to be seen when operations can resume regularly and what lessons can be learned from this incident.