Main Danube Canal closed after accident 2.0

[notamermaid]

For the second time in a month a ship has damaged the Riedenburg lock, this time the upper gate. Cannot find an English report yet. The following report suggests the lock will be out of order till the weekend: https://binnenschifffahrt-online.de/2019/07/featured/7514/schleuse-riedenburg-faellt-erneut-aus/

 

notamermaid

 

[Marjan1]

 

Thank you for the link - copied into google translate for English!

 

“Hardly repaired, the lock Riedenburg on the Main-Danube Canal falls out a second time. Once again, a ship has rammed one of the gates.

After a river cruise ship on June 5 had damaged the edge protection at the lower lock gate so severely that the gate could no longer be closed, on 28 June another ship approached the lock at Riedenburg. This time it got the edge guard on the upper gate.

The shipping at the lock was initially stopped until the extent of the damage was determined and repair measures were carried out. Experts from the Waterways and Shipping Authority have already initiated the first measures to repair the damage.


© WSA
"We had not had an accident with the edge protection on the Main-Danube Canal yet and now twice at the same lock," explains Kai Bramhoff, project manager for the repair department. If the work runs smoothly, the suspension can be expected towards the end of the week.

Eleven ships are already waiting for the onward journey. The sports boat lock at the barrage Riedenburg is not affected, small vehicles will continue to be smuggled.

The causer of the accident has not yet been determined, the water police determined.”

[not-so-ancient mariner]

A friend of mine whose cruise with Scenic has become a bus tour, said it was a Viking boat that damaged the lock.   A Viking boat hit the same lock earlier this month, as well.  And earlier this season Viking hit a sightseeing boat in the Danube causing  26 people to be killed. 

[notamermaid]

Marjan1,

Thank you for sending this through the translation machine. Pretty good, apart from "smuggling". What is meant is the process of getting the ship through a lock.

 

As of yesterday afternoon police were still trying to find the responsible ship, but had narrowed it down to two. The ship had just sailed on. The damage is estimated to be 100,000 euros.

 

Official ELWIS website says in notification 1638/2019 that reopening is likely to happen Friday evening, 5 July.

 

notamermaid

 

[Hoyaheel]

Wow, I never imagined a hit & run on a lock!

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Hoyaheel said:

Wow, I never imagined a hit & run on a lock!

Oh yeah, it is a hit and run, isn't it? Hadn't thought of it like that before you mentioned it.

So how come nobody was there to notice? I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that the locks are operated remotely, i.e. there is no real person at the lock, they do it from a central station (there are four of those that together operate the canal's 16 locks). Still, one would think that they have live feed cameras at each lock. But I have not been able to find this out from the German pages I have consulted.

 

According to a regional news website, as of early afternoon 69 ships were already waiting again. That figure includes several river cruise ships.

 

Also interesting is that the repairs will be a temporary measure, the final repairs will be done during the annual scheduled closing in early Spring next year.

 

notamermaid

 

[Hoyaheel]

I would think another vessel/captain would have noticed, or cameras, so hopefully they'll identify the culprit soon!

[steamboats]

14 hours ago, not-so-ancient mariner said:

A friend of mine whose cruise with Scenic has become a bus tour, said it was a Viking boat that damaged the lock.   A Viking boat hit the same lock earlier this month, as well.  And earlier this season Viking hit a sightseeing boat in the Danube causing  26 people to be killed. 

 

Then your friend should report this to the police as they still don´t know which ship damaged the lock gate this time ;-).

 

steamboats

[pete_coach]

As an aside, how are the river levels this year?  With all the heat, are they drying up again?

 

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, steamboats said:

 

Then your friend should report this to the police as they still don´t know which ship damaged the lock gate this time ;-).

 

steamboats

Yep,

Read earlier that they are checking ship paint samples. Currently it is going more in the direction of a barge being the culprit.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, pete_coach said:

As an aside, how are the river levels this year?  With all the heat, are they drying up again?

 

Better than last year - apart from the Elbe. At the top of the river cruising pages there is a sticky thread that will lead you straight to the respective threads that will give you more info, now and as the year progresses.

 

notamermaid

 

[not-so-ancient mariner]

6 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

Then your friend should report this to the police as they still don´t know which ship damaged the lock gate this time ;-).

 

steamboats

Haha.  The authorities may be politely waiting for the perp to " "fess up".  As I recall, it took Viking a week or so to acknowledge one of their boats was at fault the last time they damaged this lock even though people were already talking about it.  And, of course, my friend may have been misinformed.  There seems to be a lot of misinformation and a dearth of detail.  I came across this post by a Viking cruiser whose says she was told that the closure of the lock was due to the damage from early June's hit and run:

" July 1, Viking Tor, Problems effect itinerary
From a passenger: I am on the Viking Tor (Danube river tour) and we have been stuck here (Roth) for 3 days never really beginning the Friday the 28th June itinerary. The Captain and personnel announced their “surprise” that “ one” of the locks is broken. They seemed to have no knowledge of the damage to the  Riedenburg lock. However it appears quite clear that Viking themselves damaged the locks on June 5th, 2019 and have not only known all along that the repairs are not complete. There had been no release of known closure of the lock prior to this moment. Now it is a 3 hour bus ride (and 3 back) to the next stop (Passau). Strange indeed how little of this is on the for profit travel sites. "

[not-so-ancient mariner]

4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Yep,

Read earlier that they are checking ship paint samples. Currently it is going more in the direction of a barge being the culprit.

 

notamermaid

 

 

I haven't seen that in the sparse coverage I've found.  Would you provide the source?  I don't mind if it's in German, lol, thanks to Google translate. 

 

I'm surprised that after two days, I haven't seen a single  English language article. Surely people who have booked for cruises this week should be informed of the changes in their trip before they arrive in Europe. 
Like the woman who was told by the captain, this past weekend when she arrived for her Viking river cruise , that the June 5th hit and run damage was still being repaired. (see above post for her words)  Is this latest incident being repressed to keep the tourists flooding to Europe?

[pully8]

https://www.vikingrivercruises.com.au/my-trip/current-sailings/index.html

Interesting thread.

On Vikings website it states a cargo ship damaged the lock?

Hope the cruise interruptions are resolved soon for all parties.

[steamboats]

6 hours ago, not-so-ancient mariner said:

 As I recall, it took Viking a week or so to acknowledge one of their boats was at fault the last time they damaged this lock even though people were already talking about it.

 

Sorry, but you have to get the facts straight. It was known to the authorities which ship caused the first accident and that time it was no "hit and run". Media did show the wrong ship first (there were two Viking ships at the lock).

 

It´s a complete different thing what Viking is telling their customers.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

Latest news is 69 ships waiting but it´s just a minor damage and they think the can reopen the lock on Friday.

 

steamboats

Edited July 3, 2019 by steamboats

[steamboats]

5 hours ago, not-so-ancient mariner said:

I'm surprised that after two days, I haven't seen a single  English language article.

 

That´s no surprise for me as this is a pretty local thing for us here in Germany. You will basically find local news reporting about this incident.

 

I doubt that any of the call centers of the river cruise lines knows about this incident yet.

 

steamboats

[KevinandSally]

7 hours ago, not-so-ancient mariner said:

Haha.  The authorities may be politely waiting for the perp to " "fess up".  As I recall, it took Viking a week or so to acknowledge one of their boats was at fault the last time they damaged this lock even though people were already talking about it.  And, of course, my friend may have been misinformed.  There seems to be a lot of misinformation and a dearth of detail.  I came across this post by a Viking cruiser whose says she was told that the closure of the lock was due to the damage from early June's hit and run:

" July 1, Viking Tor, Problems effect itinerary
From a passenger: I am on the Viking Tor (Danube river tour) and we have been stuck here (Roth) for 3 days never really beginning the Friday the 28th June itinerary. The Captain and personnel announced their “surprise” that “ one” of the locks is broken. They seemed to have no knowledge of the damage to the  Riedenburg lock. However it appears quite clear that Viking themselves damaged the locks on June 5th, 2019 and have not only known all along that the repairs are not complete. There had been no release of known closure of the lock prior to this moment. Now it is a 3 hour bus ride (and 3 back) to the next stop (Passau). Strange indeed how little of this is on the for profit travel sites. "

 

7 hours ago, not-so-ancient mariner said:

 

I haven't seen that in the sparse coverage I've found.  Would you provide the source?  I don't mind if it's in German, lol, thanks to Google translate. 

 

I'm surprised that after two days, I haven't seen a single  English language article. Surely people who have booked for cruises this week should be informed of the changes in their trip before they arrive in Europe. 
Like the woman who was told by the captain, this past weekend when she arrived for her Viking river cruise , that the June 5th hit and run damage was still being repaired. (see above post for her words)  Is this latest incident being repressed to keep the tourists flooding to Europe?

 

not-so-ancient mariner why do you persist making posts full of mis information?

Why keep knocking Viking?

The lady referred to in the above posts was indeed told by the Captain of the Viking Tor that the lock was broken, however the rest of the quote is about her misinterpretation that he was talking about the June 5th collision and not the new recent damage.

 

Please keep to substantiated facts.

[dkm]

I'm currently on a Gate1 River cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. On Saturday, June  29th, we were informed that the lock had been damaged sometime during the night. During the day they determined that it would not be repaired for many days. As a result we left the ship on Sunday and have spent the last 3 nights and tonight in various hotels on a bus tour that pretty much has matched our original itinerary. We were all disappointed of course and we were only 2 gates away so we just missed getting through by a couple of hours.  At any rate the cruise was very nice for the first 10 days and we are all making the best of a situation that is not optimal. Gate1 and their personnel have been great and most of us are understanding of the difficult situation they and all the other River Cruise lines are having to deal with.

[notamermaid]

7 hours ago, pully8 said:

https://www.vikingrivercruises.com.au/my-trip/current-sailings/index.html

Interesting thread.

On Vikings website it states a cargo ship damaged the lock?

Hope the cruise interruptions are resolved soon for all parties.

There has indeed been no indication that it was a river cruise ship. German pages either speak generically of ship or say barge, which could mean either bulk carrier or container barge or tanker.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by notamermaid
Correction of autocorrect

[notamermaid]

Let us see, things seem to be getting a little confusing - and I myself need to look carefully at the issue dates of German news sites:

 

On 5 June a Viking ship hit the lock - the lock was closed and reopened after full repairs on 19 June

 

A few days later - unnoticed by almost everyone a barge hit the side of the embankment before the lock - no damage to lock and no closure of note

 

On 28 June just before midnight the police were informed of a ship having damaged the lock gate - the other one - with the ship having sailed on, the lock is closed and currently scheduled to reopen on 5 July after provisional repairs

 

I tend to agree with steamboats that the info is of relatively regional importance and news-worthy on a minor scale therefore does not make it far up in the ranks of local, regional, national or international. It really depends on what happens and what the impact is - on a wider scale.

 

I would not have noticed here on the Rhine of the first accident if steamboats had not alerted us to it. The second incident I turned into a separate thread after a present cruiser had suggested that their cruise is being impacted by another lock problem - Thank You .

 

So, not-so-ancient-mariner to answer your request:

 

11 hours ago, not-so-ancient mariner said:

I haven't seen that in the sparse coverage I've found.  Would you provide the source?  I don't mind if it's in German, lol, thanks to Google translate. 

 

Here is the very regional German article: https://www.donaukurier.de/lokales/hilpoltstein/Der-naechste-Stau-auf-dem-Main-Donau-Kanal;art596,4236941

 

At the end it says that the police have taken samples of the ship's paint at the lock left by the impact , i.e. they call it "Lackspuren". They keep using the generic term "Schiff". Another (locked) German article says barge - note that also a lot of German news sites operate via subscription rather than just ads so very often only let you read the headline and the first sentence of articles. Some go as far as "greying out" the text of archived articles from more than a year ago!

No specific mention of "river cruise ship".

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

[G.M.T.]

I go away for a few days "To Partake Of The Waters" (also leave some behind) and you lot let another lock gate get done no peace for the wicked.

 

The police are following up on a hot lead, this could be the culprit:

 

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, G.M.T. said:

I go away for a few days "To Partake Of The Waters" (also leave some behind) and you lot let another lock gate get done no peace for the wicked.

 

The police are following up on a hot lead, this could be the culprit:

 

 

Yes, you left us to fend for ourselves. steamboats is busy guarding Munich which was not easy in the heat I am sure, I am watching the Rhine, AnhaltER1960 is busy refilling the Elbe with a garden hose and you leave Passau unattended! We cannot keep an eye on the canal for long periods at a time. I hope the good air at Lake Garda and all the spaghetti has filled you with much energy to take up your duties again. Welcome home .

 

I reckon the wood splinters around the lock gate gave the police the clues as to who to look for...

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

If that ship was the culprit, it would not have been by accident!  Vikings always attacked deliberately.  But – how much gold did the lock keeper have to plunder???  

[philw1776]

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