Strike action affecting Deutsche Bahn on Monday (10/12)

Rail passengers in Germany have been warned to expect cancellations and delays on Monday after pay talks between the country's main railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the EVG rail trade union broke down without agreement.

Union officials told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) news agency that their members would stage a walkout on Monday morning lasting until at least midday. Further so-called warning strikes can be expected during the pre-Christmas rush, they warned.

The strike by track and repair workers was expected to cause widespread disruption to the rail network across Germany and will take effect just a day after DB increased the price of rail tickets by an average of 1.9 percent

EVG, which represents some 160,000 rail workers, blamed DB bosses for the breakdown of talks early on Saturday morning in Hamburg, insisting the new pay scale offered by the rail firm was too low. The rail firm, meanwhile, called the walkout a "totally unnecessary escalation."

It is unclear how many of EVG's 136,000 members will take part in Monday's strike action

"Leaving the negotiating table is incomprehensible and is unnecessarily unsettling for our customers in the middle of the Christmas season," explained DB's personnel director Martin Seiler.

DB says it offered staff a total pay increase of 5.1 percent in two increments and a one-time payment of 500 euros. Workers would also be able to take more holiday days in lieu of the second increment, and DB also agreed to increase the employer's contribution to the company pension scheme by 1.1 percent.

EVG said it was holding out for an extra percentage point in salary hike, and union officials would only return to negotiations once DB makes clear it is willing to increase its offer.

The Union of German Locomotive Drivers (GDL) is expected to continue its parallel talks with DB on Tuesday but warned that its 36,000 members could also take action if wage negotiations talks fail.

Monday's strike is likely to cause widespread disapproval among rail passengers, who regularly complain about cancellations and the lateness of trains, and endure some of the highest rail ticket prices in Europe.

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GWRjake said:

It was very effective indeed, a fact I can report first hand having unfortunately been caught up in it all travelling overnight from Hamburg to Heidelberg via Mannheim (0045 departure, scheduled arrival 0644).
My ICE ran as normal until Frankfurt (around 0530), where it was announced we'd not be stopping at Mannheim, so I switched to an IC from Frankfurt to Heidelberg, which ran as planned before itself being brought to a stand at Hemsbach as a result of the strikes at around 0630, where we were told we'd not be able to continue until 0900 (I believe this was the time the strike was officially set to end).
Luckily the Regional Bahn in the area wasn't affected at the time, and so around 0715 I was able to hop onto an RB68 service bound for Heidelberg, which soldiered on until Neu-Edingen/Friedrichsfeld (around 5 miles away from Heidelberg) where it too was forced to terminate at around 0740 due to the strikes.
From here I had to use all the initiative that 2 and a half months of living in the area has given me and walk around a mile to a tram stop to complete my journey in this way. Due to the lack of trains it was extremely busy, but we eventually limped into Heidelberg just before 0830, just shy of an hour and 45 minutes later than I had planned and expected (I was unaware of the strike action until the first announcement in Frankfurt).
I hope the related disputes are solved quickly as I'm sure my 1 hour and 45 minutes was by no means the longest delay experienced this morning.

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