Germany turns to drones and cameras to guard railways from saboteurs

Following two arson attacks that caused widespread disruption in western Germany, questions are mounting over what Deutsche Bahn can do to protect its vast rail network from sabotage.

Thursday’s fires damaged cables for controlling switches and signals, crippling a north-south line through Dusseldorf and causing nationwide delays.

A left-wing extremist group opposed to the “industrial system” claimed responsibility, although investigations continue.

Fully fencing off all railway infrastructure is unrealistic, a Deutsche Bahn spokesman told reporters on Friday, pointing to the scale of the system.

Germany’s rail network stretches over 34,000 kilometres nationwide, with around 4,700 kilometres just in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populated state, where the attacks took place on Thursday.

“A fence of that length would wrap around the Earth nearly one and a half times,” he said. Constant round-the-clock patrols are also impractical due to the sheer size of the network.

Instead, the state-owned company is relying increasingly on technology — including cameras, drones, sensors and thermal imaging — to monitor and protect critical infrastructure.

Across the country, Deutsche Bahn operates roughly 10,000 surveillance cameras. Some high-speed rail lines are regularly monitored by drone flights, helping to keep an eye on hard-to-reach areas.

In addition to mobile and fixed surveillance, pressure sensors and infrared cameras are used to secure stations, rail yards and long stretches of track.

The company is also working to build redundancy into essential systems. For example, in North Rhine-Westphalia it is reinforcing the cabling used to control switches and signals so that service can continue even if one line is compromised.