Status: 03/28/2023 08:15 a.m
After the nationwide traffic warning strike on Monday, regional traffic trains in the north are running on schedule again. There are still some cancellations and delays in long-distance traffic. The situation is also normalizing at the northern German airports and in shipping traffic.
“In long-distance traffic, only a few trips are canceled in the morning hours,” said a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn. There is information on this, for example Railway website. The regional and S-Bahn traffic runs in Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen without strike-related failures. In Schleswig-Holstein, the RE4 between Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lübeck was canceled this morning as a result of the strike. There were delays on other routes, but these were due to breakdowns and construction work. In rail freight traffic, the first trains from the backlog in the marshalling yards in the north have been starting up again since Monday evening, according to the railway spokesman.
After the strike: flights from Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen start again
The first flights to Thessaloniki, Frankfurt and Munich, for example, took off at Hamburg Airport shortly after 6 a.m. The airport is expecting a heavier load at the security checkpoints today, so passengers should plan more time. This morning, however, the situation was still relaxed. Air traffic was also resumed in Bremen and Hanover. The airport said there could be failures and delays today.
Work has also resumed in shipping: the locks on the Kiel Canal have been open again since 7 a.m., freighters can travel from Kiel to Brundbüttel and vice versa. The pilot shifters in the port of Hamburg are said to have been back on duty since 6 a.m. and transport pilots to the ships.
Restrictions and disabilities throughout the North
The traffic warning strike called by the EVG and ver.di unions led to many restrictions on Monday in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg. The long-distance traffic of the Deutsche Bahn came to a complete standstill, and hundreds of flights were canceled. The feared chaos on the streets during rush hour did not materialize. On Monday afternoon, regional rail traffic was resumed on individual routes.
Further information
Train connections from other railway companies are also affected
Regional and S-Bahn services operated by other railway companies were also affected by the strike. These included the companies Transdev, AKN, Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen, Nordwestbahn, erixx, vlexx, eurobahn and Die Länderbahn. Although they were not directly struck, many trains had to stand still because employees in the DB Netz signal boxes were on strike.
Many flight cancellations at the airports in the north
There were no departures at Hamburg Airport on Monday because the security check was completely closed. The warning strike also affected Lower Saxony’s largest airport, Hanover-Langenhagen, where there were no regular flight operations. Bremen Airport had also canceled all take-offs and landings of passenger planes. According to NDR information, Münster-Osnabrück Airport (FMO) was not affected by the warning strikes.
Emergency operation in the Hamburg Elbe tunnel
Despite a strike at Autobahn GmbH, there were no major problems in and around the Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg. After a decision by Hamburg’s state labor court on Sunday, there was an emergency operation in the tunnel operations center, from which five other road tunnels in Hamburg are also controlled and monitored. According to the traffic control centers of the police and the ADAC, rush hour traffic on the motorways and roads in many places in the north was “as usual”.
Around 350,000 employees called for a strike
The railway and transport union (EVG) had called on the approximately 230,000 employees of all railway and transport companies in which there are currently collective bargaining to the nationwide warning strike last Thursday. The trade union ver.di had also called on around 120,000 employees who work in this sector to take part in industrial action. At the airports, these also included employees in ground handling services and aviation security.
