The strike by German passenger transport drivers started on Wednesday morning. An emergency timetable from Deutsche Bahn applies until Monday 6 p.m. Connections to and from Austria are affected again (see video above).
The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) advises to postpone non-essential travel. For example, there is currently (from Wednesday, January 24, 7:40 am) a rail replacement service between Braunau am Inn and Simbach. The company announced on the X platform that the outage is expected to last until 2:35 p.m.
Here you can view messages from ÖBB about the railway strike on X.
No obligations for tickets
The train connection for tickets to and from Germany has been discontinued; night train tickets can also be used during the day. According to the railways, tickets purchased before January 22 can be canceled and refunded if the journey does not start or is postponed. Train tickets that have already been purchased can also be used for a longer period of time – until February 5. However, the Westbahn announced that its trains would run as planned.
Deutsche Bahn stated that the emergency timetable would have “only a very limited range of trains in long-distance, regional and S-Bahn service.” Travelers should check that their connection is active before their scheduled departure.
Strikes since November
This is the fourth strike in the current collective bargaining round since early November. The union called for a one-day warning strike in November and December, followed by three days in January. The core question is a reduction in the number of weekly hours from 38 to 35 with the same salary. So far, the railways will offer a choice of working hours from 2026, but then it will only be one hour per week, more or less the same salary.
Deutsche Bahn’s latest offer provides for a 4.8 percent increase in wages for employees from August 2024 and a further five percent increase from April 2025. An inflation compensation bonus was also announced. In turn, the GDL trade union is demanding 555 euros more per month and an inflation compensation bonus for a period of one year.
Source: Krone
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