Second German railway cable cut (Essen goods line)

On a Sunday in mid-December 2022, unknown perpetrators cut cables on a Deutsche Bahn railway line in a suburb of Essen, in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to reporting by Euronews and Anadolu Agency, the attackers broke into two signal box buildings along the line and specifically severed important cables inside several switch cabinets. The targeted route carries only freight trains, and it had reopened just the day before after about a year of construction work. The damage cut power to several level crossings, forcing the line to be closed to rail traffic for a few hours once the sabotage was discovered.

Deutsche Bahn described the operational impact as very limited, noting that the line carries little goods traffic on Sundays, and said it was fully repaired by the evening. German security and railway police investigated the case as deliberate sabotage. Officials said they had not ruled out a political motive but had found no evidence of foreign state involvement, and the perpetrators were not identified. The incident drew attention because it was reported as the second act of sabotage against German rail infrastructure in roughly two months, following the October 2022 cable sabotage that briefly halted rail traffic across northern Germany.

The Essen attack fits a pattern of deliberate, low-cost interference with European rail infrastructure, exploiting the accessibility of trackside signalling and switch cabinets. Investigators classified it as sabotage but established neither a perpetrator nor a motive, and explicitly found no sign of foreign state involvement, so attribution remains open. The operational effect was minor because the freight-only line saw little Sunday traffic and was quickly repaired. Reporting linked it to the higher-profile October 2022 cable sabotage that briefly halted rail across northern Germany, though any connection between the two incidents was not confirmed and should be treated as context rather than established fact.