Done but closed: access to the new platform overpass in Gerolstein station
Image: Krummbeuer
The flood catastrophe had a severe impact on the rail infrastructure in the Eifel. Work is being done at full speed in many places to repair the damage.
Auw an der Kyll is a quiet village. It crouches in the narrow valley, squeezed in by the rugged Eifel mountains. At the bottom next to the Kyll river is the small train station. Two tracks, two outer platforms, a commuter car park, the reception building in dark Eifler red sandstone, which has been lovingly restored by private hands and has been out of service for a long time. At the beginning of February there was the literally big train station. A good six months after the devastating flood disaster in the west of the republic, prominent politicians and railway management met by special train to reopen the southernmost section of the Cologne-Trier Eifelbahn.
The platforms and tracks, the parking lot, half the village: everything had disappeared on July 15, 2021 in a brown broth that filled the valley floor and houses. The Kyll, which had swollen into a torrent, had destroyed pretty much everything that stood in the way of the water masses here and elsewhere after continuous rain. The otherwise rather idyllic waters of the Ahr, Rur, Urft and Erft had also severely damaged houses, bridges and roads, as well as the railway lines.