- After freight transport, the German train drivers’ union GDL is expanding its strike to include passenger transport in Germany.
- From Wednesday morning at 2:00 a.m., Deutsche Bahn’s passenger transport will also be on strike, after the freight transport strike began on Tuesday evening.
- SBB recommends postponing trips to or through Germany to another time.
The German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL) wants to bring large parts of rail traffic to a standstill for around six days. It is the union’s fourth and longest strike to date. The industrial action is expected to last until Monday evening, making it the first time in the ongoing collective bargaining dispute to cover a complete weekend.
In addition to financial demands, the collective bargaining dispute primarily revolves around the issue of reducing weekly working hours for shift workers. The GDL wants to reduce this from 38 to 35 hours while keeping the salary the same.
Massive restrictions to be expected
Major disruptions are to be expected in long-distance, regional and freight transport. Deutsche Bahn has announced an emergency timetable. “For these journeys, the DB uses longer long-distance trains with more seats in order to be able to bring as many people as possible to their destination,” it said.
Due to the limited offering, Deutsche Bahn advises that you always reserve a seat early when traveling on long-distance trains. “In regional transport there is a greatly reduced range of train journeys during the GDL strike.”
Legend:
There is currently no way out of the confrontation and back to the negotiating table: members of the union went on strike in Leipzig on January 10th.
Keystone / JAN WOITAS
The railway has announced an emergency timetable again. “For long-distance journeys, the DB uses longer trains with more seats in order to be able to bring as many people as possible to their destination,” it said.
The SBB announced on Monday that it was developing a replacement concept for the Swiss section of the route. The aim is to ensure that domestic traffic is not affected if possible.
Rail strike helps aviation
The Lufthansa Group is recording higher demand on domestic German routes due to the strike. The Lufthansa core company in Frankfurt said there were “some additional bookings” for the strike period. Lufthansa sometimes uses larger aircraft in order to offer as many customers as possible a travel option. The subsidiary Eurowings also noticed a sharp increase in demand on its domestic German routes.
The prices for rental cars have also risen sharply. According to the comparison portal Billiger-Mietwagen.de, a car for a trip from Cologne to Berlin on Thursday could still be booked for 89 euros on Monday; on Tuesday it cost almost twice as much, namely 160 euros.