Busses, trains, subways come to halt in Germany as 48-hour strike begins

By Oliver Towfigh Nia

BERLIN - Public transportation across Germany was disrupted Friday as thousands of transit workers began a 48-hour strike.

Subways, trams and buses stopped running or operated on limited emergency schedules starting at 3 am (0200GMT) Friday. Regular services are set to resume at 3 am Sunday.

Friday morning rush hour brought​​​​​​​ the most severe disruptions in major cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Munich, where bus, subway, and tram services were largely canceled.

Ver.di, one of Germany’s largest trade unions, represents around 100,000 transportation employees and is currently negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement on their behalf.

The union is demanding that weekly working hours and the length of shifts be reduced, that rest periods between shifts be increased and that employees receive higher pay for working night-time hours and during the weekend.

The strike will not affect public transport operated by the Deutsche Bahn railway company, which means that regional and long-distance trains and some of the S-Bahn suburban trains will continue to run.