Cause now known

U1 fire: why the “Silver Arrow” went up in smoke

The Silver Arrow was traveling without passengers towards Reumannplatz to be parked there as a reserve train. The fire literally destroyed the carriage.(Bild: zVg)

The fire on a special U1 train led to days of chaos on public transport in Vienna. Six Wiener Linien employees were injured. It is now known what caused the "Silver Arrow" to go up in smoke ...

The fire occurred on November 19 in the middle of a special train with six carriages - without passengers. It was a narrow escape from disaster - it would have been unthinkable if the train had been full at rush hour ...

Defect in power cable led to fire
On Tuesday, Wiener Linien finally announced that they had now found out why the "Silver Arrow" went up in smoke. It was important to emphasize that this was not a "systemic fault" but an isolated incident.

The fire was caused by an electrical fault in the area of the power cables leading to the traction motors. Insulation damage in the main power cables had led to a short circuit - which subsequently caused the fire.

Together with an external expert and the Vienna State Office of Criminal Investigation, intensive work was carried out to investigate the cause.(Bild: zur Verfügung gestellt)

Trains of the same type were checked
Safety is the top priority for Wiener Linien, the statement continued: "For this reason, all trains of this type have already been checked at the relevant points. The investigations revealed no evidence of a systematic fault."

The expert's investigations show that a chain of unfortunate circumstances led to the fire.

Wiener Linien

Nevertheless, the close inspection of the affected components would be included in future maintenance work. The "Silver Arrows" have been in service for more than 30 years, the affected train was 31 years old and had traveled 2.5 million kilometers without any major incidents, according to Wiener Linien.