Major problems between Moenchengladbach and Venlo

[Groningen]

Currently there is only 1 train every 2 hours instead of hourly. Shortage of drivers seems to be the problem. Remember is part of going from Harwich to Hoek van Holland to the Ruhrarea in Germany. At least untill January 1, 2017. Extra busses run with major delays with the stopping service. Instead of 25 minutes the stoppingbus takes 75 minutes between the 2 cities. The fastservice nonstop takes 42 minutes to Venlo. There are already problems since 2012. And the newspaper i get this article from thinks that the problems are to stay.

 

[duesselmartin]

Well the VRR local authorty are wanting to impose fees die to a breach of contract. But as you say Eurobahn has difficulties in the past and one can only hope that DB will be awarded that contract. The driver shortage seem to be due to the fact that from December, Thalys gave their driver contract for the German section to Eurobahn/Keolis

 

[306024]

Thanks for pointing all this out. It's a route I use occasionally so something to keep an eye on. Last time it was a replacement bus from Venlo to Kaldenkirchen then a train, but I guess that was engineering work. The ICE from Utrecht to Cologne seems a safer bet in future, but I've had delays with that too.

 

[duesselmartin]

Yes, generally I think cross boarder services are not great.

 

[dutchflyer]

Well-todat I was in Enschede, where the DB cross border trains run ev. 30 mins. and were well filled. In fact on SATurdays the Eurobahn trains bring in the most people to Venlo-town-even more as the Dutch NS-IC s (ev. 30 mins).
Cause of problem seems to be a major lack of qualified traindrivers (who have admission to also work in NL). Eurobahn has taken over the driving of the Thalys trains in DE.
BTW: its now at all unique, on the well-known German train forum DSO=Drehscheibe-online today were some 5+ reports of same-style thinning out of services and replacement buses. Various new operators cannot find enough staff to man their trains.

 

[duesselmartin]

Could Keolis Eurobahn potentially hier dutch staff and wualify them? They are more likely to speak German than vice versa.

 

[Groningen]

Problems are not limited to Venlo alone. There are major, major problems around Hamm in Westfalen (between Dortmund and Bielefeld) at least untill January 7, 2017. The level of being sick is 3 times higher than average.

 

[duesselmartin]

Ist there noch pool TOCs van short term hire from? Nord West Bahn seems to have similar difficulties.

 

[AlexNL]

Germany does not have some sort of TUPE legislation, when a different TOC wins a tender they aren't required to take over the staff under their existing terms. An offer will be made to the existing staff, but it's unlikely that DB staff will accept that offer as their terms and conditions are better than what the new TOC can offer.

Hiring and training new drivers isn't easy, as the German system is quite complex. 5 different types of signalling are in use, regulations are different throughout the country, and you can even find lines without a train protection system.

Hiring Dutch drivers is unlikely as well: Dutch drivers that are allowed to drive in Germany already do so (mostly for freight), new drivers would have to go through the same training process as their German counterparts.

 

[dutchflyer]

And pay in DE is also a little bit lower as in NL. AND in NL you can go on strike more often as you fear boring ''going round around the church''.
On 11/12 ARRIVA took over the local trains from NS south of Roermond (plus the existing Veolia lines) and also has difficulties finding enough staff for now.
Other fora also suggest that f.e. the coaches (Fernbus) in DE also suffer from a ''cleanswept'' potential pool of qualified drivers. There are also some customer complaints about drivers not speaking German-many are Polish or Hungarian. There is certainly threatening a lack of really qualified staff for many such technical jobs in DE for now.