Claus Weselsky and his GDL are on strike until Wednesday at 2 a.m. If you want to travel with Deutsche Bahn or the S-Bahn in Germany, you should avoid the 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.
If you want to save yourself that, you should consider alternatives. Commuters now come to work by rental car, bus or e-scooter.
S-Bahn hit by strike
Not only long-distance traffic, but also local traffic is affected. 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 from Monday at 2 a.m. up to and including Wednesday at 2 a.m.
Does the S-Bahn run on Monday and Tuesday?
If you want to go to work on Monday and Tuesday without delay, you should leave earlier, look for alternatives or just go to the home office.
the Deutsche Bahn does not want to stop operations completely. The trains should run at irregular intervals. In many cities, however, they could also fail completely.
Bus and subway would also be affected. Because many people have to use precisely these means of transport, there is an unusually high rush during the rush hours in the morning (between 7.30 a.m. and 9 a.m.) and in the evening (between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.).
The more people there are at the platforms and bus stops, the longer it takes to get on and off. So there are delays.
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 have to consider?
Deutsche Bahn speaks of “massive disruptions” and asks rail customers to “postpone” their planned train journeys.
Workers should be aware that there will be massive traffic jams on main roads and motorway entrances. Many employees are switching to cars, which means the roads 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?
From Monday (at 2 a.m.), Deutsche Bahn only runs 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. Additional employees are to be available 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.