Emergency services were met with a scene of destruction. On Sunday evening, the grey-yellow cars of a regional train had derailed and crashed into each other near Riedlingen in southwestern Germany.

It soon became clear that the train driver, a trainee, and one passenger were killed in the accident. More than 40 out of around 100 passengers were injured, some of them seriously.

Heavy rain in the area had apparently caused a sewer shaft to overflow, triggering a landslide directly onto the railway line and derailing the train.

As man-made climate change increases the frequency of heavy rain, storms and other extreme weather events, railways are increasingly affected.

Overall, however, traveling by train is not only more sustainable than flying, it is also far safer than driving cars. Moreover, in recent years, the EU region has seen a decline in fatalities from train accidents.

To prevent landslides and flooding of road underpasses during heavy rainfall, the German railway company Deutsche Bahn has been working on a heavy rainfall plan: When water damages a section of railway, it is usually detected before the next train approaches.

Flooding has been a serious problem in the past, for example, with the 2021

© Deutsche Welle