Strike action by staff at Deutsche Bahn

Apparently there will be warning strikes on DB tomorrow, so it might be worth listening to the news in the morning if you are planning to travel. Don't know if it might affect the S-Bahn or not.

This only says that there will be a hotline for strikes "expected starting Thursday" (28.Sep.2006). The Friedenspflicht (union's obligation to hold peace) ended yesterday, the union is calling for strikes but no definite target or time have been named.

Ok, I have terrorism on the brain at the moment, as I thought this (the original title: Train strike!) was referring to bomb strikes... . Glad its not!

Strikes have begun. Especially hit are Dortmund, Saarbrücken, Köln, Trier, Paderborn, Düsseldorf, and Duisburg.

Hotline: 0 8000 99 66 33

Source: http://www.bahn.de/-S:PtVOSN:ee-FZtNNoWiDF.../streik_d.shtml

explains the especially shit traffic this morning

This time Munich and Nuremberg are being targeted. If you have any train travel plans check the Deutsche Bahn hotline 0 8000 99 66 33 (as listed above). According to union speakers they will try to except the S-Bahn from any strike actions; still reckon with disturbances and late arrivals until noon.

Oh, this is really going to piss off my co-worker who commutes every day from Augsburg. I'm so glad I'm in home office today!

My co-worker who commutes every day from Augsburg just got in on time.
Damn railway workers, you can't ever rely on them not to do something nowadays.

According to Die Welt, S-Βahns aren't affected. Why are they striking? They want further guarantees that DB won't fire anyone for financial reasons through 2010 and they want more money. Fuckers. DB has too many people and not enough passengers due to ever-increasing costs which drive even more passengers away leaving them needing fewer people and there's no way for them to plug the leaks.

woof.

This has also been my argument against them raising the fees for the MVV. The more often and higher they raise the fees, the more they take in but the more they lose passengers who opt for other means. Does anyone know if this will extend to tomorrow? I´ve booked tickets a week in advance for a weekend trip starting tomorrow only to have to worry now about whether or not I´ll make my connections...grumble grumble

BD,
the strikes are against the privatisation of the railway system.
Guarantees are already in place about no redundancies, these were given some time ago when the workers agreed to more hours of work for no pay rise. In return they were given assurances that there would be no forced job losses until (I think) 2010.
If the threatened privatisation goes ahead, these agreements may be overturned.

Also, it is believed that privatisation would more or less ruin the network which currently functions pretty well.
(á la UK - when the railway system was sold off).

MT

There´d probably be less strikes though!

You are talking utter bollocks out of your arse.

Passenger numbers on MVV services are rising and will continue rising.
This goes hand in hand with new stations and new lines on the U and S Bahn.
MVG would love to be expanding ts tram service and IIRC there's been an increased use of buses in Munich since the introduction of the new network a couple of years ago.

Car transport is set to get less attractive in Munich in the long term. There'll be NO free parking within the Mittlerer Ring within a couple of years and a City-Maut is still possible.

Federal and State subsidies for public transport are falling. To stave off the threat of privatisation of MVG, the have to run their services at +/- 0 through the farebox intake ALONE. You pay less in Munich than in many other comparable cities.

DB is operates to an extent in different markets to MVG. partly it provides S Bahn serices in the MVV area though it also has long distance services and regional services. Most politicians want to privatise DB in the next five years. But there is no agreement how to do so. The management are going for the workers to feather their own nests if they end up running the company. The workers are worried about their jobs and the possibility of pay cuts.

Society NEEDS people to work in the transport sector and they should be recognised for the role they play. That means decent pay and not the constant threat of redundancy.

By the Powers and shiver me timbers you son of a biscuit eater! Obviously if the MVV expands, so will the number of passengers. And as travel by car gets more expensive, so the more passengers. My point is from the individual perspective rather than the whole. Each individual will constantly weigh the costs vs the benefits to themselves. There are other options e.g. bikes, car pools, indeed cars etc. that each person may decide to use after ticket costs go over some threshold. I stand by my point that you can only milk the passengers to an individually set limit, the crossing of which will cause them to go somewhere else.

I agree with Lupo. It is not whether the number of passengers are increasing from year to year, but the elasticity related to the cost of the ticket. If they lowered their ticket price would they have more, or if theytraised the price would they have less passengers. So the point is by raising the ticket price they may haved less passengers than they would have had whether or not they have more passengers than the previous year. If this decrease in passengers is offset by the increase in fares generated by the indifferent passengers, than it was a good decision, otherwise it was a poor decision.

Who decides such a thing ? surely people should be allowed to vote with their feet/bums on seats ? Ah democracy... not socialism's best friend sadly...

There is a certain elasticity in demand for public transport services in relation to the price true.

Generally demand is always there at the peaks and supply limited so the price is higher then whereas there is over supply in the off peaks hence the lower priced tickets to stimulate demand.

However it is not a simple relationship. A 20% increase in fares (say) would not result in zero public transport passengers becasue the alternatives are not nexcessarily there or attractive.

The MVV tarif is a fine negotiated balance. They have not lost passengers by increasing the prices, they have gained them by offering a better service.

The MVV is already cheaper than a car commute for many if not most people and it represents bloody good value for money imvho.

I don't like it, but it is a FACT (applies to Germany, UK, possibly other countries as well) that the fares payable on public transport have, are and will rise faster than the headline inflation rate and real incomes.

SPECIFICALLY in Munich, the MVG MUST cover its operating costs from the farebox take alone or it will be broken up and privatised. Think First, think Stagecoach, think Connex. They would "offer" a crappier service, treat their staff worse and STILL charge higher fares!.

but at least if they went on strike then, then we wouldn't notice

Just talked with the info center. There are no strikes planned for this weekend...

For those planning on taking the train today, I just called the DB hotline, and was told that "since midday, all trains have been running according to timetables" and that there has been no further disruption.
Anyone know of a SMS alert service for DB travel delays (like the very useful service of London Underground)?