Roundup: German train drivers' strike spreads to passenger services

German passenger train drivers joined an indefinite national strike on Wednesday, halting a majority of the country's long-distance trains.

Passenger train drivers started the strike at 2:00 (0000 GMT) on Wednesday, said German railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB). Their colleagues in cargo locomotives walked off their jobs on Tuesday.

According to DB, only one third of long-distance passenger trains and two thirds of regional trains were running. Subway services in some cities which were operated by the company were also interrupted.

The company said it was working on a replacement schedule and doing everything possible to minimize the impact to customers.

The strike was organized by German train drivers' union GDL after a recent failure of negotiations over a labor dispute. It was the 9th one since July last year, and came just eight days after a week-long strike that costed the German economy 500 million euros (about 556.1 million U.S. dollars).

GDL said the current work stoppage would be longer than the last one and it would only let passengers know 48 hours in advance when the strike would come to an end.

The union, which represented about 20,000 train drivers, was asking DB to increase wages for drivers by 5 percent and to shorten their working hours. It was also seeking to get a right to represent other railway staff, such as stewards, in collective bargaining.

Recent rounds of negotiations failed to find a solution to the long-lasting dispute. Suggestions to ask for arbitration was also refused by the union.

Around 5.5 million commuters rely on railway transportation in Germany every day. Business groups also warned that the repeated strikes would cause an economic damage of up to 100 million euros a day and hurt Germany's international reputation of logistics hub. Endit