GERMANY’S train drivers brought rail traffic to a standstill again today morning as they began a six-day strike in a bitter dispute with the country’s main railway operator over working hours and pay.

The strike by the GDL union will affect passenger services and freight trains operated by state-owned Deutsche Bahn until 6pm local time on Monday.

The union held a three-day strike earlier this month and two walkouts last year which lasted up to 24 hours.

In addition to pay rises, the union is calling for working hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 per week without a pay cut, a demand Deutsche Bahn has so far refused.

Today the train operator again rejected the union’s proposals as a basis for further negotiations, calling them a “repetition of well-known maximum demands,” news agency dpa reported.

The employer’s “third and allegedly improved offer” of an average increase of 4.8 per cent from August, and an additional 5 per cent from spring 2025, was rejected by the union because it said the bosses had shown "no sign of a willingness to reach an agreement.”

Bosses in Germany have estimated that the strike will cost around €100m (£85m) a day at a time when they say industry is already under strain over supply chain issues linked to the Red Sea attacks on shipping.

German manufacturing has been hit hard by EU sanctions on Russia, depriving it of the cheap gas imports crucial to its role as Europe’s manufacturing hub.

As with the previous strikes, about 80 per cent of long-distance trains were cancelled and there were also considerable restrictions on regional services, according to Deutsche Bahn.

“European freight traffic across the Alps, Poland or to Scandinavia as well as the seaports in Holland or Belgium will also be affected,” said Deutsche Bahn. 

With negotiations stalled, German Transport Minister Volker Wissing told public radio Deutschlanfunk: “If things are so deadlocked that we obviously can no longer talk to each other, then we urgently need mediation or arbitration.”