Robert Hell wears a coat with a fur collar and a scarf. It’s six degrees below zero at Munich Central Station. Anyone who has to wait for their train freezes. The 70-year-old looks at the display board on an empty track. His train to Landshut was supposed to leave there at 8:44 a.m. “But there’s something different now,” he says, unsurprised. Hell has no understanding of the train drivers’ strike at Deutsche Bahn (DB). “Zero!” For regular guests like him, traveling by train is already adventurous, and the train should definitely avoid additional cancellations. At least, a little later, Hell’s train does leave. “Now I just hope that I can come back in the afternoon,” he says.
For the duration of the strike by the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL), which is scheduled to last until Friday, 6 p.m., the Railway for long-distance transport developed an emergency timetable with a greatly reduced offer. In the Regional transport A greatly reduced offer is to be offered. This is visible at the main train station on Wednesday morning. There is little going on on the tracks. Trains arrive less frequently than usual. When nothing is running, it seems as if there are more train employees than passengers in the main station.
One floor below, on the restricted floor, it looks similar. The Munich S-Bahn, which also belongs to Deutsche Bahn, is also on strike until Friday. As with the previous warning strikes by the German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL), the railway wants to run at least once an hour on all S-Bahn lines. The most current information is in the app or on the Railway website available. The plan looks like this:
- The S1 runs between Ostbahnhof and Neufahrn every 20 minutes. From Neufahrn, the S1 continues to Freising and back every hour and to the airport and back every 20 to 40 minutes.
- The S2 runs between Markt-Schwaben and Dachau every 20 to 40 minutes, on the other sections every hour.
- The lines S3, S4, S6 and S7 operate every hour.
- The S8 runs between Ostbahnhof and Pasing every 20 minutes, between Pasing and Germering every 20 to 40 minutes and between Germering and Herrsching every 60 minutes. Due to construction work, the S8 between Ostbahnhof and Ismaning will be replaced by buses. There is an hourly S-Bahn shuttle service between Ismaning and the airport from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is best for passengers to use the S1 to get to the airport.
- The S20 omitted.
The locomotive drivers want to go on strike until Friday evening – this also affects the Munich S-Bahn.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
The subway, tram and bus lines are not affected by the strike; they belong to the Munich Transport and Tariff Association (MVV). There is no sign of any particular traffic chaos at the main station in the morning. The strike was foreseeable, most passengers are prepared.
This is also the case for Brigitte Motan, 66, with a suitcase, coffee and two bags on the way to Berlin. “I live at a terminus of the S-Bahn, which is constantly canceled even without a strike,” she says. In order to be sure of getting one of the few trains to Berlin, she stayed overnight with her son near the main train station today.
Many passengers are probably like Motan, especially when it comes to S-Bahn traffic – they prepare for the special situation in advance. “It already works with the emergency timetable. People can deal with it,” says Andreas Barth, Munich spokesman for the Pro Bahn passenger association. People worked from home or postponed errands in the city. But of course, many Munich residents, who already had to accept massive traffic disruptions in and outside the city in December due to the heavy snowfall, the GDL warning strike and the storm before Christmas, have the feeling: “Now I have to get back to it furnish!”
In this respect, Pro Bahn is overall “dissatisfied with how things are going.” The aim of the transport industry is, of course, to resolve collective bargaining issues through negotiations without leading to strikes. Barth sees Deutsche Bahn as equally responsible as the GDL. Strikes are the trade unions’ tool. And the employer must help prevent strikes. “There are still issues that have not been negotiated – that’s unfortunate,” says Barth. The example of Go-Ahead shows that things can be done differently. The railway company reached an agreement with the GDL at the beginning of January.
There are also restrictions at Go-Ahead due to the train drivers’ strike – although the company itself had reached an agreement with the GDL.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Nevertheless, the train drivers’ strike at DB also has some effects on regional and long-distance train connections from other companies to Munich, including Go-Ahead.
- This is how the trains fall Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to Munich.
- The trains of the Western Railway However, trains from Munich via Rosenheim to Vienna should travel as planned, as the private Austrian company announced.
- Go ahead announced that the regional trains from Munich to Lindau would probably only run to Buchloe and later Kaufering due to strikes in two signal boxes on Wednesday. An emergency bus service will be set up for the rest of the route. However, “no disruptions are foreseeable” for the connection to Augsburg on Wednesday.
- The Bavarian Regional Railway (BRB) announced that it was not foreseeable to what extent the BRB could be indirectly affected by the strike, for example through striking DB dispatchers. Passengers are therefore asked to find out about the current status before starting their journey.
A passenger at the main train station appears resigned to fate. “On the railway it’s the exception that everything works,” says 27-year-old Finn Honsberg. He originally wanted to drive to Berlin at 4:40 a.m. At least Honsberg knew in time and was able to sleep longer. Shortly before 9 a.m. he stands on the platform in a pine green down jacket and still waits. “Nobody in the private sector could afford something like that,” he says. “The GDL strikes now seem to be more about personal matters.”