The railway union and staff representatives of Deutsche Bahn have drawn a mixed interim balance after the Pentecost weekend with a 9-euro ticket.
“As expected, the 9-euro campaign triggered a large rush on the regional trains, which led to significantly more cases of congestion nationwide,” said the Vice-Chairman of the General Works Council DB Regio, Ralf Damde, the editorial network Germany (RND/Tuesday). on Monday evening after discussions with railway works councils from all over Germany.
“The feared physical assaults against the railway staff did not occur, but there were verbal attacks,” said Damde. The massive additional personnel requirements made thousands of overtime hours necessary at Pentecost alone. Despite the many additional vehicles used, passengers had to be turned away, Damde continued. “Everywhere in Germany the platforms and the trains were full, in several cases overcrowded trains had to be cleared – but fortunately no stations.”
According to initial evaluations of the problem reports from the train drivers, there were around 400 trains nationwide every day that were too full, so that passengers had to be turned away or bicycles could not be taken along. “Bikes in particular are still a big problem,” Damde told RND.
The railway works council expressed its praise for the passengers, who mostly took calls for consideration and patience seriously. “There was aggression, for example when a bicycle had to stay outside or people no longer got on the train, but it remained verbal,” says Damde. In total, there were around 700 reports of overloads, problems with passengers or disruptions to the operations center every day. That is significantly more than on an average weekend and also significantly more than on the Pentecost weekend before Corona.
The fact that many travelers without rail experience could not find their way on the platforms or in large stations led to increased personnel and time expenditure, Damde explained. “All in all, the passengers needed significantly more help than usual. This also included the fact that many people who had not traveled by train for a long time did not know that masks were still compulsory in public transport.”
The additional use of vehicles has led to overtime for railway staff across the board, especially train drivers, customer advisors, service staff, but also cleaning staff and maintenance staff, Damde explained. “Faults can no longer be repaired in the workshop, but must be fixed on vehicles by mobile teams on site.” “It is possible in exceptional cases, but not permanently. Many railway employees are already walking on their gums,” says Damde.
