2024-03-12 20:36:12
There is another strike today. Both train and flight connections are canceled. Some travelers see politicians as responsible for the mess.
At first glance, the display board in Berlin Central Station gives no indication of the rail strike. Not a single “train is canceled today” banner is on the right edge of the screen. At second glance, however, you notice that only the trains that are running today are displayed. At the bottom of the screen there is a note: “GDL strike!” Only one long-distance train will leave Berlin Central Station in the next hour.
The tourists Gabriel M. and his wife try to catch one of these rare trains. They want to visit his family in Nuremberg and have come from Texas specifically for this purpose. But everything seemed to go wrong from the start. First, her flight from Houston was rescheduled due to the Lufthansa strike. Lufthansa staff are on strike again today. After that there was a lot of stress with the hotel rebookings and now this: the GDL employees are also on strike. After only a short warning.
“Everything is messed up”
Gabriel M. and his wife are victims of one of the waves of strikes that Claus Weselsky threatened last week. In the future, the GDL would like to repeatedly announce strikes at much shorter notice in order to enforce their demand for a 35-hour week with full wage compensation for union members.
“Everything is a mess,” says the Texan in English. “This morning we were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to get to Nuremberg anymore.” Germany currently seems “a bit disorganized” to him.
“Politicians have not invested enough in Deutsche Bahn”
Berliner Harald M. sees politicians as responsible for the current mess: “Since the traffic light government, the supply of people has deteriorated.” Albert K. is also dissatisfied on this day of the strike at Berlin Central Station: “The government doesn’t make politics for the people.” Almost nothing works in Germany anymore. The 31-year-old fears that everything will collapse in a few years.
Video | Bahn concedes defeat – the next strike is underway
A tourist from Hanover doesn’t see things quite as bleakly. But she is also dissatisfied with the status quo: “Politicians have not invested enough in Deutsche Bahn for years.” She complains that the train stations are run down, the trains are outdated and the rail network is not sufficiently developed. “Politicians always say we should switch to public transport, but they don’t do anything about it.”
She and her daughter will now a train from the emergency timetable take. They still fear the “extraordinarily high capacity utilization” that the train app warns about on most connections today. Nevertheless, an ICE to Leipzig is not even half full when it leaves the train station from platform 1. “People don’t even dare to come here if the train is canceled at the last moment,” suspects a railway employee. He’s actually not allowed to speak to the press.
It’s not just rail passengers who are suffering from the strikes
In addition to the tens of thousands of train passengers, restaurants and retailers in the train stations are also affected. The goods in the bakery displays are piling up. Today only a few customers come to buy a pretzel or a sandwich. An employee of the “Kamps” bakery chain confirms that the effects of the strikes are noticeable in the cash register collapse in the evening.
On such days, Pink P., an employee of an Asian snack bar, relies on the regular customers of the nearby businesses. “The tourists with their suitcases aren’t coming today,” says the 28-year-old. Only those who are stranded at the train station occasionally seek out a snack bar. This is also the case for Texan Gabriel M. and his wife. After all, they have to wait around three hours at the main station until their train finally leaves.