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The Germans are on strike

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fowler9

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davetheguard

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Are you able to translate what the Hamburg to Berlin bit means for me? Hopefully I won't be affected as I travel next Monday.

It says there will be a train from Berlin to Hamburg -and vice versa- every 1 to 2 hours during the strike.
 

blackfive460

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Are you able to translate what the Hamburg to Berlin bit means for me? Hopefully I won't be affected as I travel next Monday.

You shouldn't be affected next Monday, I doubt they would call another strike so soon but according to the plans there should be an ICE between Hamburg and Berlin at least every two hours. 1-2-stündlich means 1 or 2 hourly.
 

fowler9

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It says there will be a train from Berlin to Hamburg -and vice versa- every 1 to 2 hours during the strike.

Many thanks for that. Much appreciated. :D
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
You shouldn't be affected next Monday, I doubt they would call another strike so soon but according to the plans there should be an ICE between Hamburg and Berlin at least every two hours. 1-2-stündlich means 1 or 2 hourly.

Many thanks also to your good self. I was thinking that perhaps with a strike running until Friday there wouldn't be another one too soon. It was nice to hear that I should be able to make the journey if the worst came to the worst. I fly in to Hamburg and out of Berlin so could really do with some way of making the journey. :D
 

D6700

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I was thinking that perhaps with a strike running until Friday there wouldn't be another one too soon.

I made a similar assumption last autumn, but was wrong :(

See posts 36, 37 and 44 in this thread. In essence, a strike finished at 04:00 on a Thursday, but was followed by a 50 hour strike commencing at 02:00 on the Saturday - which was only announced on the Friday.

After suffering the effects of two German strikes and an Italian one last autumn, I successfully negotiated my way through another Italian strike last month :)

With my apparent magnetism to finding strikes, I'm getting nervous about my trip in early June from York to Prague by train, which passes through both Belgium and Germany over the course of two days!
 

DEE-DE

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So I had to rebook my London-Spezial today (for tomorrow). The most sensible solution seemed to be to divert via Paris due to the Belgian strike. But DB were for some reason unable to get a reservation for the Eurostar. Also they would've required me to pay in advance and then reclaim the money. That would've been too much. But I managed to be rebooked to Friday. I didn't want to travel on Thursday because of the German strike. It wold've been impossible to catch the first ICE to Brussels. And I need to be in London early enough to get a train to Scotland.
 

fowler9

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I made a similar assumption last autumn, but was wrong :(

See posts 36, 37 and 44 in this thread. In essence, a strike finished at 04:00 on a Thursday, but was followed by a 50 hour strike commencing at 02:00 on the Saturday - which was only announced on the Friday.

After suffering the effects of two German strikes and an Italian one last autumn, I successfully negotiated my way through another Italian strike last month :)

With my apparent magnetism to finding strikes, I'm getting nervous about my trip in early June from York to Prague by train, which passes through both Belgium and Germany over the course of two days!

Ah well. Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully we will both be OK. Fingers crossed both of our trips are trouble free.
 

D6700

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Ah well. Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully we will both be OK. Fingers crossed both of our trips are trouble free.

Indeed, fingers crossed. The good thing is we've both got some contingency gen in case we need it :)
 

Bletchleyite

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Does anyone have any in depth knowledge of the dispute going on on DB at the moment, and in particular what the likelihood of further strikes is - i.e. are they negotiating, or will the next 2 weeks be messy?

Reason is I may want to use the Berlin-Warszawa-Express on Wednesday 6th, and I'll need to book connecting flights (or just fly for all of it). This has, according to DB's timetable, been curtailed to run in Poland only on those dates with no replacement on the German stretch.

Cheers.
 

Redonian

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I too am hoping to use DB for two cross border journeys on 6/5. Holland - Berlin then onwards to Budapest. I have been trying to grasp the prospects for future strikes from reading German on line newspapers and it doesn't seem good. The GDL union leader seems to spend a lot of time posturing and threatening the DB management with more strikes and saying he has no intention to negotiate further. There seems to be every prospect of more and longer strikes in the coming weeks.
 

30907

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Does anyone have any in depth knowledge of the dispute going on on DB at the moment, and in particular what the likelihood of further strikes is - i.e. are they negotiating, or will the next 2 weeks be messy?

Reason is I may want to use the Berlin-Warszawa-Express on Wednesday 6th, and I'll need to book connecting flights (or just fly for all of it). This has, according to DB's timetable, been curtailed to run in Poland only on those dates with no replacement on the German stretch.

Cheers.

The second post herehttp://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?2,7382318 says there were connecting buses to Rzepin and the BWEs were held for it.
 

oldtrvller

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Just come back from 12 days in Germany and these included the strike days.
A few Intercity trains were running on the Wednesday and Thursday. Tried to visit the Ruhr area on the Thursday - got to Wuppertal on an IC train and saw no DB Regio S-bahn RB or RE trains running. Decided to go back immediately to Cologne where there were several of the local lines running.
 

blackfive460

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GDL had a meeting with DB in Frankfurt on Wednesday which concluded with DB making a two stage, 24 month offer totalling 4.7% but no reduction in hours, no reduction in overtime and nothing on another couple of points GDL want.
Unsurprisingly GDL have rejectedted this and are now ready to strike again promising that this time the strike will be 'really long'!
Then we have the other union, EVG, making noises about strikes.

Guess who arrived in Deutschland yesterday....
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Sunday and I'm still in Deutschland.
Nothing official as yet but the word on the platform is for a strike Tuesday to Sunday next week.
Keep an eye on the German news papers tomorrow.
 

Redonian

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A strike has been declared for freight from 15:00 Monday and passenger traffic from 14:00 Tuesday until the following Sunday.
 

blackfive460

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Seems the local rumours were right then.
Ends 9 AM Sunday.
I'm so pleased I'm heading home on Tuesday!
 

HA25322

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Good luck everyone who is over there. It has been confirmed on Santa Klaus website that they are downing tools. http://gdl.de/Aktuell-2015/Telegramm-1430668762
Glad I have no reason to go over there for a good long time. They will not be getting my money until the German government finally have the law in place that small unions like GDL cannot stop the whole country's railways from running. This though will not be until July or August at the earliest.
 

Bletchleyite

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Well, it seems like the Berlin-Warszawa-Express is completely canned this week, which is a right pain - I had hoped they'd run it with a bus connection into Poland like last week. Damn. Will have to come up with another plan...
 

STEVIEBOY1

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This is all very worrying news.

I am due to travel in about 2 -3 weeks time. To Berlin with a Koln stopover on the way home.

Hopefully Eurostar and the ICE 16 & 17 from Bru to Koln will be ok, but it's the Koln/Berlin & return that I am most concerned about.

Do they lay on Bus replacement services?
 

WestCoast

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It's very frustrating all in all. The S-Bahn here in Munich is running the usual replacement timetable of a service every hour on each line guaranteed (usually 10/20 mins), a 20mins service on core lines (usually up to every 5 mins). The possibility of more trains is there, but nothing is guaranteed.

It took me a while to realise why the (council run) U-Bahn was so busy this afternoon (a stretch of the U3/U6 which can be used instead of the S-Bahn), every train was rammed. The buses and trams were rather busy too.

I was supposed to be going up to Nuremberg from Munich tomorrow, but most of the faster ICEs have been proactively cancelled. The RE that runs on the high speed line will no doubt be extremely busy, if not completely full. The Fernbus (coach) operators seem to be doing quite well out of it, laying on extra services, and there's many more BlaBlaCar offers than usual.
 
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blackfive460

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This is all very worrying news.

I am due to travel in about 2 -3 weeks time. To Berlin with a Koln stopover on the way home.

Hopefully Eurostar and the ICE 16 & 17 from Bru to Koln will be ok, but it's the Koln/Berlin & return that I am most concerned about.

Do they lay on Bus replacement services?

I just got back from Köln yesterday.
International trains to Brussels, both Thalys and ICE seemed to be running as normal and there seemed to be an hourly ICE to Berlin so you should be OK whatever happens (always assuming EVG don't get in on the act too!).

I was surprised by how quiet the Hbf was yesterday morning. I'd expected long queues for information, busy platforms and packed trains but everything was very quiet. It seems that people have got used to the situation and made other arrangements.

The Autobahn and other roads seemed busy though!
 

Bletchleyite

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The Berlin-Warsaw services are running, with a bus between Rzepin and Berlin.

Nice that PKP put that on their website. DB didn't, nor is it in their journey planner, nor do their staff nor departure boards[1] seem to know anything about it!

Though, that said, I am now on EC 43 having taken the 0551 Regionalexpress to Frankfurt(Oder) and the local train across the border. So not all bad news.

It seems however that EC 41 (the one I was booked on) was cancelled throughout. I was sent an email notifying me of this pointing to alternatives (rail ones, no bus). Maybe those booked on EC 43 did get contacted regarding the bus?

Edit: Amusingly if you search "bus berlin rzepin" you get this page as the first vaguely useful result!

[1] They might have done at Berlin Hbf itself, but I wasn't waiting around to see if they bothered or not, as had they not I would have got stuck.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Purely out of interest, does anyone know if those working are strike breaking, or if there are multiple unions for drivers in Germany, only one of which is on strike? Cheers.
 

Bletchleyite

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Some drivers are Beamter (public servants) who are not allowed to go on strike

Ah I see. What defines when they are and they aren't?

Totally separate question to add...does the DB equivalent of Delay Repay cover this? ISTR they use the EU mandated scheme which I half recall has a "not our fault" get-out?
 
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