The tally of passenger trains brought to an abrupt standstill due to erroneous emergency signals in Poland climbed to 25 by mid-afternoon on Tuesday. This surge in interruptions represents the latest in a string of incidents that have thrown Polish rail services into disarray over the past few days.
Speaking to PAP (Polish Press Agency) on Tuesday, Karol Jakubowski, the official spokesperson for Poland’s passenger railway service PKP PLK, revealed that earlier in the day, unwarranted activation of radio-stop signals was documented across four provinces: Mazowieckie and Lodzkie in central Poland, Opolskie in the southwest, and Pomorskie in the north. Jakubowski confirmed, “A total of 25 passenger trains were brought to a halt,” and emphasized that no harm was inflicted upon passengers.
Despite these occurrences, Jakubowski asserted that “all instances have been promptly communicated to the competent authorities tasked with unravelling the specifics of these events.”
These incidents transpired even in the wake of the apprehension of two individuals on Monday, linked to similar disruptions witnessed over the preceding weekend.
The fallout from these false emergency signals reverberated across the northwestern and northeastern regions of the nation, where nearly 100 trains found themselves either immobilized or subjected to delays as a consequence of the unauthorized transmission of emergency radio stop signals.
In response, Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW), collaborating closely with the police and rail companies, has launched a comprehensive inquiry into the matter.