Status: 05/15/2023 10:22 p.m
After the cancellation of the two-day warning strike by the railway and transport union (EVG), there were only a few restrictions on train traffic in the north on Monday, according to Deutsche Bahn (DB). The railway operation “started largely according to plan,” said a spokesman.
Thousands of employees were contacted at short notice over the weekend to fill as many shifts as quickly as possible. In long-distance traffic, around 90 percent of the regularly scheduled trains are on the move. However, travelers should still find out which trains are running. The regional and S-Bahn traffic ran largely without strike-related restrictions.
At the weekend, Deutsche Bahn still expected that around a third of the planned long-distance trains would not run on Monday. The reason given by the railway was the difficult organization: around 50,000 long-distance and local train journeys would have to be rescheduled with the corresponding shift and deployment plans. Some of the wagons and locomotives would have to be brought to new departure points.
Deutsche Bahn: Complete train offer on Tuesday
The railway also announced that the full range of long-distance and local trains would be available to passengers on Tuesday.
In order to accommodate the passengers, the railways had lifted the train connection for ICE and IC journeys between Sunday and Tuesday. If booked trains are completely cancelled, the usual passenger rights also apply – these allow, among other things, to catch up on the journey later. Long-distance tickets booked by May 11 for the travel days May 14 to 16 can also be refunded. The Ascension Day week is one of the busiest weeks of the year, as DB emphasized.
Ascension Day: bottlenecks expected at the Hanover junction
Deutsche Bahn recommended that all travelers only take train journeys on Wednesday or Thursday for which seat reservations are still available. According to the information, it will increase, especially at the Hanover junction, where most ICE trains converge significant bottlenecks.
Partial restrictions on private railways
Because the EVG union is not only negotiating collective agreements with Deutsche Bahn, but also with smaller competitors at the same time, there were restrictions on some private companies on Monday. In Schleswig-Holstein, for example, train traffic on the Neumünster – Heide – Büsum route should not start again until Tuesday. There were also restrictions between Hamburg-Altona and Wrist and between Hamburg Hauptbahnhof and Itzehoe. On the North German Railway, trains on the Niebüll – Dagebüll and Niebüll – Tondern (Denmark) routes were canceled.
According to the company, there were no disruptions on Monday at the Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn Odeg in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Due to the use of DB infrastructure, Odeg is usually also affected during strikes.
50-hour warning strike canceled on Saturday
The 50-hour warning strike called by the EVG was to begin at 10 p.m. on Sunday and end at 12 p.m. on Tuesday. The EVG had surprisingly canceled the planned strike on Saturday. Previously, there had been an agreement in the collective bargaining dispute with the railways mediated by the Frankfurt am Main Labor Court, which will now form the basis of further collective bargaining. The bargaining round affects 230,000 employees, 180,000 of whom work for Deutsche Bahn.
Further talks between the EVG and the railways are now planned for Wednesday. The official collective bargaining round in Fulda in the coming week should be prepared in a “small circle”, according to the railway.
Further information
