Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Rail Strikes this week
Current situation (Friday, October 12, 10.30am): the GDL is striking from 2am until midnight. The S-Bahn in Berlin is running to a limited timetable (20 minute intervals on most lines, 10 minute interval on the Ringbahn); the S-Bahn website has detailed information (German only). Regional trains are heavily disrupted.
I've just been past my local station (Schönhauser Allee), on the Ringbahn; trains were running at around 10 minute intervals, but the inner loop trains were running quite out of sync, e.g. the next train was in 14 min, the following in 21 min.).
Looks like another round of stoppages is upcoming: train drivers' union GDL will be striking across Germany on Thursday and Friday this week, and Monday and Tuesday next week. The strikes will affect non-intercity trains, i.e. regional lines and S-Bahn networks only, following an injunction obtained by Deutsche Bahn.
In contrast to the last strike on Friday, which was known in advance and only lasted three hours, the upcoming strikes will take place without advance notice. Deutsche Bahn won't be putting any emergency timetable in place this time.
In Berlin, it's likely a large number of services on S-Bahn network will not be able to run, but there are enough non-GDL drivers to maintain a basic service. However, the "wildcat" nature of the strikes may mean drivers stop trains at inconvenient locations. Plan for delays, and avoid the S-Bahn where possible.
Posted at 6:50 AM in