Gelsenkirchen (dpa / lnw) - Train drivers and train commuters in North Rhine-Westphalia should be able to hope for a gradual return to regular local transport in the coming weeks. After criticism of the recently unreliable regional transport on numerous routes and connections due to the tense personnel situation, the local transport associations Rhineland (NVR) and Westphalia-Lippe (NWL) as well as the transport association Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) at a top meeting with representatives of DB Regio on concrete Agreed measures for a return to a stable timetable and train traffic. The associations announced this on Friday.
The political bodies of the special-purpose associations initiated the discussion in order to ensure that reliable train services were restored across the board as quickly as possible in the interests of passengers. At the meeting, DB Regio presented a package of measures on how the contractually agreed services can be provided in full again in stages.
According to this, DB Regio NRW wants to provide around 98 percent of the agreed transport services again from September 19th. Among other things, the trains on the regional express lines RE8, RE42 and RE49, as well as the RB46, which were recently running with restrictions or not at all, are to run normally again. The concepts for the regional trains 32 and 40 are currently being developed, it said. DB Regio will start regular train service on the southern branch of the S6, the S68 and the RB33 on October 17. The RB40 trains and the shuttle service between Letmathe and Iserlohn should run as usual at the latest when the timetable changes on December 11th.
In order to provide relief on the routes between Mönchengladbach and Cologne and along the Haard axis between Essen, Münster and Osnabrück, passengers with local transport season tickets (weekly, monthly tickets and subscriptions) have been able to use selected IC/EC and ICE trains since August 27th -Use connections without extra charge.
Since July, numerous trains had stood still or could only run to a limited extent due to high sickness rates among train drivers and other staff, sometimes more than 30 percent. There were also a number of delays, and there was no longer a reliable timetable on the Rhine and Ruhr. This has caused great annoyance among passengers and the local transport associations. According to DB Regio, the personnel situation will ease in the coming weeks. In addition, they want to use employees from other federal states in NRW and reassign tasks to operating sites.
All top representatives also agree that qualification and further training should be given higher priority. The "Fokus Bahn" industry alliance initiated by the transport authorities is a particular focus here. In the future, DB Regio wants to provide more training than is required and introduce a new training course for dispatchers. This branch of training did not previously exist.
