Deutsche Bahn after the strike is called off: Operation largely according to plan

Thousands of employees were contacted at short notice over the weekend to enable scheduled train operations to be “largely enabled”, according to Deutsche Bahn. ÖBB has set up a shuttle service.

After the two-day warning strike was called off, trains ran “largely” as planned on Monday morning, according to Deutsche Bahn. A spokesman said the rail operation had “begun very much according to plan”. Thousands of staff were contacted at short notice over the weekend to fill as many shifts as possible as quickly as possible.

In long-distance traffic, about 90 percent of regularly scheduled trains will run on Mondays. Travelers should know which trains are running. Regional and S-Bahn traffic operates largely without strike-related restrictions.

At the end of the week, Deutsche Bahn announced that a third of its planned long-distance trains would not run on Monday. All ICE and IC trains will return to the route as planned from Tuesday. Deutsche Bahn cited difficult regulation as a reason for Monday’s limited supply: around 50,000 train journeys in long-distance and local transport will have to be rescheduled with corresponding turnaround and deployment plans. Some wagons and locomotives will have to be brought to new starting points.

ÖBB has established the shuttle service

Deutsche Bahn announced on Monday that a full range of trains will be available for long-distance passengers and local transport on Tuesday. Freight traffic restrictions can still be expected on Monday and Tuesday. The warning strike called by the Railways and Transport Union (EVG) was due to start at 10pm on Sunday and end 50 hours later, at midnight on Tuesday.

ÖBB has established an hourly transfer of Railjet trains across Deutsches Eck on Mondays and Tuesdays. In addition, night travel will only resume on Tuesday night. It was planned that all Railjets would finish and start in Salzburg or Kufstein. There, the switch is made to the shuttle train, which takes passengers over Deutsches Eck. “Because of the two changes, travel times are expected to be slightly longer. However, the two-hour bypass route via the Austrian interior has been cancelled,” ÖBB explained on Sunday evening.

It was not clear after Sunday evening whether RJX connections could be made between Salzburg and Munich. Here ÖBB was still in coordination with Deutsche Bahn. In any case, long-distance trains on the Zurich-Bregenz-Munich line are affected, starting and ending in St. Margareten, and EC trains between St. Margareten and Munich have been cancelled.

ÖBB Ask passengers to inform themselves

On local transport, the ÖBB is running the full regular schedule again. There are still individual restrictions on Monday on the road between Scharnitz and Mittenwald. ÖBB requires its passengers to inform themselves of planned connections before starting their journey, either in the ÖBB Scotty timetable information or the ÖBB app or by calling ÖBB customer service at 05-1717-0.

EVG had abruptly canceled a strike planned for Saturday. Previously, there was an agreement in a collective bargaining dispute with the railway mediated by the Employment Court in Frankfurt am Main, which will now form the basis for further collective bargaining. The collective bargaining round affects 230,000 employees, 180,000 of whom work for Deutsche Bahn.

(APA/DBA)