On the first weekend of Advent, of all days, and thus at the start of the "Advent season at Drachenburg Castle", the Drachenfels railway had to take a forced break: Due to a broken rail, Germany's oldest cog railway was unable to operate from early afternoon on Sunday. Managing Director and Operations Manager Thomas Scharf confirmed this to the General-Anzeiger newspaper. The repairs are in full swing.

The defect came to light early on Sunday afternoon. According to Scharf, the railway was temporarily taken out of service from around 2.45 pm. The Drachenfelsbahn, which has been on its winter break since mid-November, but recently hosted prominent guests such as German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his wife Elke Büdenbender and the President of the Republic of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, and his wife Jenni Haukio, is currently only travelling to the event at Drachenburg Castle. On Sunday, Germany's oldest existing cog railway, which turned 140 years old this year, returned to the engine shed due to the defect in the rail; there was no danger.

Numerous passengers who wanted to go up the mountain either with a combined ticket from Schloss Drachenburg including train journey and admission or with a single ticket from the railway itself had to make the steep journey on foot. According to Scharf, the castle is responsible for refunds in the case of combined tickets and the railway directly in the case of single tickets.

Guests can contact besucherservice@schloss-drachenburg.de, Schloss Drachenburg said on enquiry. "We will process the partial refunds as quickly as possible, but kindly ask guests to be patient, as there may be delays due to the generally very high volume of enquiries we are currently receiving," the GA enquiry was told. The rail fare for the adult ticket is eleven euros per ticket. The exact number of guests affected is still being investigated. There were only very few tickets that had been purchased for Sunday, but had not been validated or scanned. "Most of the guests then walked up to us and the tickets are displayed in our system," says the visitor service at Schloss Drachenburg.

Expert Scharf attributes the rail breakage to tension in the material, possibly caused by temperature fluctuations. Specialist companies were immediately commissioned to carry out the repairs on Sunday; the repairs have been underway since Monday morning, "the companies were on standby immediately," said the operations manager, praising the work. Scharf assumed on Tuesday that the damage would be repaired as soon as possible.

This will also be necessary, as the Advent season at the castle at the railway's middle station will enter round two next weekend. The "Advent season at Drachenburg Castle" can still be visited on Saturday and Sunday, 9 and 10 December and on 16 and 17 December, from 2 pm to 7 pm. More about tickets and booking: www.drachenfelsbahn.de/adventszeit

(Orig. text: Claudia Sülzen / Translation: Mareike Graepel)