German railway strike affects millions of passengers, causes traffic jam

Millions of passengers in Germany were affected by German railway strikes on Wednesday, which also caused considerable traffic jams on the highway.

Only about a third of long-distance trains were expected to run on Wednesday and Thursday, while about half of the city traffic was to be held up, according to Ulrich Homburg who is responsible for passenger train traffic of German state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB).

German train drivers' union GDL called for new, multi-day strikes across the nation after a recent failure to reach an agreement with DB over a wage dispute.

The freight train staff walkout started at 3:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on Tuesday and will last until 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Friday, while drivers of passenger trains were striking from 2:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) Wednesday to 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Thursday.

On the German highway, traffic jams were reported in many states, like Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz and Baden-Wuerttemberg, according to German media.

Passengers who were used to travelling by train were forced to drive, which made the highway even busier, with traffic jams as long as 20 km at peak periods.