Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - In the debate about many train cancellations in Saxony-Anhalt, the railway and transport union (EVG) criticized railway companies on Saturday. It is currently taking revenge on "the wrong personnel policy" of Deutsche Bahn AG and other companies, explained state chairwoman Janina Pfeiffer. "Unmanned signal boxes due to illness are a real scandal, albeit a homemade one." Staff had been cut for decades.
"Our colleagues have exceeded the limits of resilience," said Pfeiffer. "Disruptions and failures in rail operations are unavoidable." Efforts to increase staff have so far been in vain and would bring no relief. It becomes clear "that things cannot go on like this".
Saxony-Anhalt's Transport Minister Lydia Hüskens (FDP) had massively criticized Deutsche Bahn during the week because of the many train cancellations. "The Bahn system - caused by DB Netz AG - could not prove its system relevance and performance (...)," wrote Hüskens in a letter to Bahn Infrastructure Board Member Berthold Huber. According to Hüskens, route closures due to unmanned signal boxes have been increasing for months. Mainly affected is the axis Halle - Sangerhausen - Kassel with hours of downtime every day.
The district administrator of the Mansfeld-Südharz district, André Schröder (CDU), had also called for urgent remedial action to be taken against the failures in train traffic. The railway justified this on Friday with “extraordinarily high sick leave”. "In the case of short-term sick notes - especially among signal box staff - these unfortunately cannot be fully compensated for even by flexible and forward-looking personnel planning," said a DB spokeswoman. In Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, the company wants to hire around 3,000 new employees this year.
