Any you have an assessment of how real the threat is that Die Bahn workers will go out on a system-wide strike? There has been talk of warning strikes soon and the locomotive drivers are wanting a huge pay increase in an independent effort.

Seems there could be problems, i.e. delays next week. There will be detailed informations on Monday. I do not think the whole system will be blocked, though. Warning strikes hardly last longer than an hour or two and affect only selected areas. So far, no real big strike has been announced. Let's see. Anyway, for those who have to travel, it's better to have a Plan B.

For those who understand German, here is the Bahn page that shows the current changes of the timetable and delays due to strikes: http://www.bahn.de/blitz/view/index.shtml

I didn't know about this...missed it the last few days. I will be traveling throughout Germany from 7/4-23 by train with three teenagers. I don't understand enough German to be able to get the gist of the info from the DB page...will trains still be running, but with delays? Could this affect all types of trains?

Right now I think efforts are being made to avoid a strike. A German friend of mine who lives in Romania sent me a news release. Here is the most key sentence I understood: „Wir hoffen, dass wir einen Streik vermeiden können“, sagte Bahnchef Hartmut Mehdorn am Donnerstag in Frankfurt.

My translation: Harmut Mehdorn, head of Die Bahn, said on Thursday in Frankfurt, "We hope that can avoid a strike."
The word vermeiden is key; it means avoid.

The article went on to say that a 3rd round of negotiations will take place on Saturday in Berlin. Bargaining will continue through the weekend.

A spokeman for the Transnet union said:
„Wir erwarten, dass die Bahn ein deutlich verbessertes Angebot vorlegt.“
I think this comment is on the good side. The union is saying that it expects die Bahn to make a significantly improved offer.

The Transnet people want 7%; earlier die Bahn negotiators offered two pay increases of 2% each over a 30 month period. If each side will budge 1%, I am hoping there will be an agreement.

We should know the situation better by Sunday night.

Bob,

Thanks very much for posting about this possible turn of events.

We will be taking ghr night train to Copenhagen with a change in Hamburg on 12 July and of course hope we will not be affected but it is good to know about such happenings.

My German friend also tells me that the whole union probably will not go out on strike at once, if the workers go out at all. Germans tend to have "warning strikes" wherein the union will select a key line, such as Berlin - Hamburg, and shut it down for a day.

The wild card in this whole game is the locomotive drivers. They belong to a separate union I am told and want a huge pay increase.

I am scheduled to take the train from Munich to Zürich in a few weeks, so I am keeping a close watch on the news releases I get automatically. The train is operated by Die Bahn, so it is German controlled.