Travelers should prepare for major difficulties later this week. Because both Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Lufthansa are on strike again. Munich is also significantly affected by this.
The GDL railway workers’ union has called for a strike from 2 a.m. on Thursday morning, March 7th, to 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon. The sticking point remains the requirement for a 35-hour week in shift work. The Verdi union is calling on Lufthansa ground staff to go on strike from Thursday at 4 a.m. to Saturday morning at 7:10 a.m. Verdi is demanding 12.5 percent more salary and at least 500 euros per month for a twelve-month contract for the approximately 25,000 employees of Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Cargo.
The first restrictions on the S-Bahn can be expected from midnight on Thursday night, the railway said. These will then last until the night from Friday to Saturday. According to DB, all S-Bahn lines should run at least every hour during the strike:
- The S1 line runs between Ostbahnhof and Freising every 60 minutes and does not go to the airport.
- The S2 line runs between Markt Schwaben and Dachau every 20 to 40 minutes, and on the other sections every hour.
- The lines S3, S4, S6 and S7 run every hour.
- The S8 line runs between Pasing and the airport every 20 minutes, between Pasing and Germering every 20 to 40 minutes and between Germering and Herrsching every 60 minutes.
- The S 20 line is no longer available.
There will also be construction work on the main route in the night from Thursday to Friday, the railway warns and advises postponing non-essential trips to another time.
For long-distance travelers there will probably be no train connection again. Passengers can get on www.s-bahn-muenchen.de or in the Munich Navigator app via your connection and on www.s-bahn-muenchen.de/aktuell inform about the current operating situation. The GDL is also threatening subsequent strikes that are not announced 48 hours in advance so that the railway does not have time for emergency timetables.
Lufthansa is expecting massive flight cancellations, especially at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs, during the two-day warning strike by its ground staff. Around 1,000 flights will be canceled on Thursday and Friday and around 100,000 passengers will be affected, as a company spokesman said on Tuesday in Frankfurt. The airline is trying to display 10 to 20 percent of the original flight plan. The cancellations have already been taken into account in the flight schedules. During the most recent strike, 448 of 790 planned flights in Munich had to be canceled.
Affected passengers will receive information about cancellations and rebooking options by email or in the Lufthansa app. Rebookings are free of charge, alternatively customers can have their tickets refunded.