Fallen tree derails train in Enschede; cleanup to take all day

A Deutsche Bahn train was derailed by a fallen tree in Enschede on Wednesday evening. The salvage and cleanup work will likely take all day, according to rail manager ProRail. Currently no train traffic is possible between Enschede and Gronau, Germany, NU.nl reports.

The tree fell onto the tracks due to the bad weather conditions. The German train collided with it and derailed, ProRail reported on Twitter at around 8:20 p.m. None of the 35 passengers on board were hurt.

The train was en route to Gronau in Germany. The line is served by German traffic control, but as the accident happened on Dutch territory, ProRail is handling it.

Preparations for getting the train back on the tracks have been completed, but took longer than expected due to the position of the train. "The crane could not get close enough to the train", ProRail said. The rail manager's incident controllers now have the damaged train ready to be towed away.

NS expects that train traffic can be resumed on the line by around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. German transport company DB Regio deployed buses to transport passengers on the route in the mean time.