Dusseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Cases of illness in the workforce at Deutsche Bahn in North Rhine-Westphalia are again causing many failures and displeasure among passengers. S-Bahn trains in the Rhineland will be affected at the weekend, as announced by DB Regio NRW. The Pro Bahn passenger association criticized the "increasing total failures of DB Regio train lines in the past few days as no longer acceptable".
"Due to the currently tense personnel situation due to a high level of sickness" trains on lines S8, S11, S12 and S19 were canceled until early Monday morning (July 25th), the railway said on Zuginfo.NRW. The RB 46 between Gelsenkirchen and Bochum will also be canceled until Friday evening. The failures are by no means an isolated case: there had been several similar reports in the past few days and weeks. With the RE 49, the RB 32 and the S6, trains are even canceled for weeks until the beginning of August.
DB Regio said that replacement traffic is being worked on for the S-Bahn connections that have now been deleted. Among other things, large-capacity taxis and normal taxis are in use. According to a report by the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, the S-Bahn failures caused chaos on the platforms, crowded trains and annoyed passengers as early as Friday.
DB Regio has been struggling with high levels of sickness for a long time, but recently also pointed to a "job offensive": This year they want to recruit around 24,000 new employees in Germany. A dpa survey at the beginning of July showed that many other transport companies in NRW are also struggling with staff shortages. In contrast to these, DB Regio keeps shutting down entire routes instead of offering at least an hourly service, Pro Bahn criticized. "New customers who were attracted by the 9-euro ticket are deterred in the long term, and long-standing Deutsche Bahn customers are also being driven away," it said. If necessary, the public transport authorities should use legal means to force DB to make a minimum offer.
