GDL boss Claus Weselsky is serious! His union is on strike until 2 a.m. on Friday. If you want to take the Deutsche Bahn or the S-Bahn in Germany, you will find yourself in front of empty train stations. Although the railway wants to travel on some important routes and major cities in spite of the large number of strikes, in many places nothing works without train cancellations, delays and frustration.
Many workers are also affected by the GDL strike. Almost the entire S-Bahn network in Berlin, Bremen, Ulm, Dresden, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Bonn, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Halle (Saale), Munich, Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Ruhr area, Düsseldorf, Rostock, Stuttgart or Breisgau comes to a standstill.
The trains should run at irregular intervals – or even fail completely. Local public transport would also be affected because many people have to switch to precisely these modes of transport. During the rush hours in the morning (between 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.) and in the evening (between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.) buses and subways could get crowded, and trains could not arrive at the stations on time due to the high volume of traffic.
Who doesn’t strike?
The trains from private providers such as the Bayerische Oberlandbahn, Flixtrain, Vlexx, SBB Germany, Benex, Keolis, AKN Eisenbahn, alex, oberpfalzbahn, trilex, vogtlandbahn, waldbahn or the MittelrheinBahn in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia are not on strike.
What do employees and travelers have to consider?
Deutsche Bahn speaks of “massive disruptions” and asks rail customers to “postpone” their planned train journeys. Anyone who is absolutely dependent on the train and cannot travel later should at least be able to use some important rail connections. However, this only applies to direct connections. If you have to change trains in Germany to reach your destination, you should not take the train until 2 a.m. on Friday.
And what about workers who have to go to work urgently? You should clarify with your boss whether you can switch to the home office. If that is not possible, the following applies: it is essential that you set off earlier. Remember that there will be massive traffic jams on main roads and freeway entrances. Many employees are switching to cars, which means the streets are full. The traffic jam situation is also exacerbated by alternatives such as car sharing services or rental cars.
How do I find out whether my train or S-Bahn is running at all?
The has been running since 2 o’clock Deutsche Bahn just with an emergency plan. The group provides information about the routes via “bahn.de/aktuell“, Via the app (the download is available here) and via the strike hotline 08000 99 66 33. Hundreds of additional employees will also be standing at the train stations to inform travelers about alternative routes or accommodation options.
Is there a warning about the railway strike being too late at work?
As a general rule, employers should generally deal with delays caused by strikes in an accommodating manner. Legally, bosses do not have to apologize for their employees because of a rail strike. Employees are even more obliged to independently ensure that they arrive at work on time and on time – regardless of whether storm or strike. If employees have to clock in before starting work and they arrive too late, those affected either have to make up for the absence or they slip into the red in the time recording.
“First and foremost, the employee must inform his employer as soon as possible about a potential delay. Otherwise there is a threat of a warning, ”emphasizes Jürgen Schreiber, specialist lawyer for labor law.
First rail strike during Corona – that’s important now!
The mask requirement applies in the station, on the trains and therefore also at the information desk. Keep your distance in queues.
If you have to go to the hotel, you should know: In Bavaria, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein, unvaccinated hotel guests need a negative antigen rapid test on arrival. In North Rhine-Westphalia, this applies to districts with a 7-day incidence of 10 or more.
If you are traveling with children, it would be advisable to either completely cancel the trip on the day of the strike, to switch to other means of transport or to change the trip completely.
The common alternatives: Flixbus, Flixtrain, rental car or car sharing.
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Planned train journey, what happens to my ticket?
The railway introduced a “special goodwill regulation” during the strike. Train tickets that were planned during the strike days will remain valid until August 20th. There is no train connection in the case of saver fares. Travelers can thus use the connection that is guaranteed to get them safely to their destination.
If you want to travel at a later point in time, you can have the ticket canceled under certain conditions.
Are the trains running normally again on the weekend?
Although the GDL wants to end the strike on Friday morning, commuters and rail travelers will probably have to expect disruptions until Sunday. The trains parked during the strike can only be returned to their deployment sites after the strike has ended. That takes – sometimes even the entire weekend.