German rail passengers face more chaos from strike

German rail travel was paralysed today by an open-ended strike, the ninth stoppage in less than a year, as the government prepares a law to stop small unions from bringing entire sectors to a standstill.
Railways operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) said it cancelled two thirds of long-distance passenger services as train drivers staged a new walk-out that was expected to last more than a week.
The strike, the latest flare-up in a protracted and increasingly bitter dispute, had begun yesterday, initially affecting freight trains, but was extended to passenger services from 0000 GMT today.
The drivers' union GdL has not said how long the strike would last, only that it would be longer than a six-day industrial action at the start of May. It said it would give 48 hours' notice before the strike ends.

The industrial dispute centres on wages, work hours and negotiating rights between the small GdL union and the national rail operator.
In early May the union staged a nearly week-long walkout, the longest in DB's history, which industry groups estimated cost Europe's top economy almost half a billion euros (USD 550 million).

The GdL, which represents some 20,000 train drivers, is demanding a wage rise and shorter work hours as well as the right to represent other rail workers such as conductors and restaurant carriage staff.
That demand is effectively a turf war with the larger railway union EVG, which has more than 200,000 members, and which is now involved in separate, less heated, wage negotiations with DB.

Deutsche Bahn confirmed today that two thirds of long-distance services had been cancelled and on average one third of regional services, varying from region to region.
"With 250 (long-distance) trains, DB can offer around one third of normal services," the operator said.
"In regional services, between 15 and 60 percent of trains are running, depending on the regional state concerned."
Eastern Germany was particularly hard hit. And fewer than half of regional trains in the capital Berlin and Germany's second biggest city Hamburg were running.
DB said it would "do everything in its power" to ensure that as many services as possible could run to help holiday-makers over the upcoming long weekend marking the Christian Pentecost holiday.