Danish trains to Hamburg disrupted by German rail strikes

DSB confirmed in a statement that its services on Thursday and Friday would be impacted by industrial action by German rail staff.

The strike is scheduled to be in effect from 10pm on Thursday to 10pm on Friday.

During that period, DSB’s Hamburg services will terminate on the Danish side of the border at Padborg.

“Deutsche Bahn cannot currently say whether trains will run south from Flensburg [German border city, ed.],” DSB said.

The German train drivers’ strike marks the latest industrial action in an escalating dispute over working conditions.

The GDL trade union said drivers of freight trains had been called on to strike from 6pm Thursday, and drivers of passenger trains from 10pm. The action will run until 10pm Friday.

It is their second walkout in weeks: in mid-November, train drivers staged a 20-hour strike that led to the cancellation of some 80 percent of long-distance trains across Germany.

At the heart of the dispute is GDL's demand for working hours to be reduced to 35 hours a week, from 38 currently, without salaries being cut - which national operator Deutsche Bahn has so far refused.