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Where are public transport strikes taking place this week in Germany?

Public transport passengers around Germany should expect delays and some cancellations this week, as 90,000 employees from local transport companies are striking on various days from Monday to Saturday.

Published: 26 February 2024 11:11 CET
Updated: 27 February 2024 11:28 CET
transport strikes
Trams in a depot in Frankfurt during an earlier local transport strike on February 2nd. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Helmut Fricke

Trade union Verdi has announced that actions are planned across Germany this week with the most strikes scheduled for Friday, March 1st.

This is the second time this month that public transportation workers have stopped work across Germany, following strikes that took place on February 2nd. That’s in addition to a number of regional transit strikes throughout the month as well.

Generally the number of strikes will ramp up through the week. Bavaria is the only German state where no strikes are currently scheduled.

READ ALSO: More local public transport strikes called across Germany

Strikes begin in Berlin and the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein

In Berlin strikes have already begun. An initial strike started at 3 am, and lasted until 2 pm, on Monday.

Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) passengers can expect delays and cancellations of buses, the U-Bahn and trams in the city.

According to the Berliner Morgenpost, however, BVG has announced that all transport lines are still in use despite the strike. Some bus lines have longer waiting times, and individual U-Bahn trips are cancelled. Ferries are not affected by the strike.

After Monday’s initial BVG stoppage, a wider ranging Berlin strike is expected on Thursday February 29th and Friday March 1st, which will coincide with a climate strike called for by Friday’s for Future. The strike in Berlin lasts all day Thursday and is due to end on Friday at 2pm. 

Work stoppages by bus drivers in Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein are also already underway. A Verdi spokesman estimated the cancellations in bus services on Monday morning are at about 85 percent in this region. 

strikes

A sign at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz on Monday morning warns that there could be delays until 2 pm due to the strike. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Paul Zinken

Strikes in Bremen, Hamburg, and Lower Saxony

In Hamburg, buses and subways are expected to strike on Thursday and Friday (February 29th and March 1st). The S-Bahn will continue to run as usual. 

In Bremen there will be a strike on Wednesday (February 28th). Bremerhaven, however, is not to be affected.

In Lower Saxony, local strikes will take place on different days. In Göttingen it will start on Wednesday, whereas other cities are expected to strike from Thursday. 

Those who may be affected in Lower Saxony are advised to check with their local transport companies.

Strikes in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, and North-Rhine Westphalia and Hesse

By Monday afternoon, warning strikes are expected also in Saarland and in the Trier region.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, companies have called for a strike on Thursday, February 29th and Friday, March 1st.

In Hesse a strike is also scheduled for March 1st. Restrictions are expected to impact bus, road and U-Bahn traffic.

Further strikes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, several local transportation companies already went on strike from the 21st to 22nd of February.

But municipal companies throughout the state have called for another strike on March 1st. Neubrandenburg is the one exception where no strike is scheduled.

Some strikes in the south 

Bavaria is spared from travel blockages, as it is the only German state where no strikes are announced this week.

On the other hand, those in Baden-Württemberg should expect a strike on March 1st, and further strikes may be announced by Monday afternoon.

According to Taggeschau, Verdi said it “will announce our strike days in good time so that passengers can prepare for them”. The union added that until then, no strike effects are to be expected in Stuttgart and Esslingen. 

Generally, actions are not expected to be planned for Baden-Württemberg until the end of the week.

Why are transport workers striking again?

Sign reads'Warn-streik'

A “warning strike” sign in front of the entrance to the depot of Kieler Verkehrsgesellschaft at the beginning of February. Verdi is calling on all employees of public bus companies to continue a series of warning strikes until the end of service on Friday. Photo by picture alliance/dpa | Axel Heimken

Those who depend on public transportation to commute to work or for their daily errands will likely experience some service disruptions this week – specifically on Friday. March 1st in most places.

Many passengers may be wondering why public transportation workers are striking again for the second time in a month.

Berlin’s BVG transport association told the Berliner Morgenpost that the strike was “completely disproportionate and irresponsible with regard to our passengers”. But Verdi says the strike is mainly about improving the working conditions and relieving the burden on transport employees.

In addition to the introduction of a 35-hour week, the union is demanding that the length of shifts be limited to a maximum of ten hours. They also want the minimum rest period between shifts extended to twelve hours.

Bus drivers and transportation workers across Germany suggest that the burden of the job has gotten worse in recent years as more workers leave the profession.

“Many of my colleagues leave the profession within two years,” Mathias Kurreck, a bus driver who has worked with BVG for 17 years, told The Local. He cited long shifts with few breaks, and not enough time off to spend with family as being among his biggest concerns.

READ ALSO: Why Germany is being hit by strikes almost every day

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EES: Why is the UK-France border such a problem for the EU’s new biometric passport checks?

The EU's proposed new system of passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System will apply to all of the Bloc's external borders - so why are most of the warning lights coming from the France-UK border? And is it really Brexit related?

Published: 8 May 2024 12:03 CEST
EES: Why is the UK-France border such a problem for the EU's new biometric passport checks?

The EU’s new Entry & Exit System of enhanced passport checks – including biometric checks like facial scans and fingerprints – is due to come into effect later this year.

You can read a full explanation of how it works HERE and see our frequently-asked-questions section HERE, including information for non-EU citizens who are resident in an EU country and the system for dual nationals.

EES will apply to the whole of the EU and Schengen zone and will apply at external borders, but not for travel within the Schengen zone itself (eg between France and Germany or Italy and Switzerland).

You can hear the team at The Local discuss the latest developments on EES on the Talking France podcast – listen here or on the link below

The EU has plenty of external borders from land borders such as the Greece-Albania border to the airport frontiers that occur when, for example, an American flies into Italy.

But while several nations have expressed concern that their infrastructure is not ready, the loudest and most dire warnings are coming about the border between France and the UK.

READ ALSO Travellers between France and UK could face ’14-hour queues’ due to new passport system

So why is this border such a problem?

The problems with the UK France border are threefold; volume of traffic, space and juxtaposed borders.

Volume of traffic – This is simply a very busy border crossing, about 60 million passengers a year cross it by ferry, plane, Channel Tunnel or Eurostar. For people travelling from the UK, especially those crossing by car on the ferry or Channel Tunnel, France is simply a stopping point as they head into Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands or to Spain or Italy.

Around 70 percent of those passengers are British, which means they will have to do the EES checks.

READ ALSO Could the launch of EES be delayed again?

Space – The second problem is to do with the space that is required to process all those passengers as several crossing points – especially the Port of Dover and the embarkation area at London St Pancras – are quite crowded and for various reasons don’t have room to expand.

Extra infrastructure is required to complete EES pre-registration checks and this will be difficult to physically fit into some crossing points – for context the EES pre-registration area for the Channel Tunnel at Coquelles covers 7,000 square metres.

Juxtaposed border controls – the UK-France border is also unique within the EU because of its juxtaposed border controls, which are the result of a bilateral agreement between France and the UK known as the Le Touquet agreement.

Juxtaposed border controls exist at Paris Gare du Nord and London St Pancras for those using the Eurostar, the ports of Dover and Calais and the Channel Tunnel terminals at Folkestone and Coquelles – these mean that when you leave the UK you get your passport checked by both British and French authorities, and then there are no passport checks when you arrive in France – and vice versa.

This means that if there is a hold-up at one border control it has a knock-on effect on the other and means that very long queues can quickly build up – as has been seen several times at the Port of Dover since Brexit.

The Brexit effect

Part of the problem with the UK-France border is that discussions about EES began while the UK was still a member of the EU, and then the conversation changed once it had left.

However, even when it was in the EU, the UK never joined the Schengen zone so there were always passport checks for travellers between France and the UK.

The difference is that EU citizens are exempt from EES – so those 70 percent of passengers crossing that border who are British would have been exempt from the changes had it not been for Brexit.

French and other EU citizens remain exempt and will not have to complete EES pre-registration once the system is up and running. 

Therefore EES would have only applied to a tiny minority of travellers entering the UK – for example American tourists arriving into London – which logistically would be a much easier challenge, especially for the Port of Dover whose customers are overwhelmingly either British or EU nationals.

What about Ireland?

Had it not been for Brexit, the UK would have been in a similar situation as Ireland is now – since Ireland is a member of the EU but not the Schengen zone.

Under the new system Ireland will not use the EES system at its own borders and will carry on manually stamping passports.

However, anyone who has an Irish passport will be exempt from EES when they are travelling within Europe – for dual nationals this only applies of they are travelling on their Irish passport.

READ ALSO Your questions answered about the EU’s new EES system

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