Eurobahn must continue with timetable changes in OWL and the TWN

Düsseldorf, 13 June 2024: The nationwide and industry-wide shortage of skilled workers continues to create a tense staffing situation, including at eurobahn. In addition, high sickness rates mean that the company can no longer offer its journeys as originally planned. To enable passengers on the affected lines (RB 65, RB 66, RB 67, RE 78 and RE 82) to prepare for this, eurobahn is today announcing the continuation of the timetable adjustment measures that were planned until 5 July.

"We are joining forces to improve the situation for our affected passengers," says Anne Mathieu, CEO of eurobahn, "We already successfully expanded our recruitment last autumn. We are currently training 22 new train drivers in qualification courses that can compensate for the shortage of staff. However, it will be some time before the new colleagues are ready for deployment and can take part in safe railway operations, as the training takes twelve months. In addition, we are continuously reviewing all other options together with the public transport authority NWL to see how we can achieve an improvement for our passengers in the short term."

In recent weeks, eurobahn has already been able to implement short-term improvements, such as setting up a direct bus between Detmold and Bielefeld or increasing capacity.
 

The timetable change is working: significantly fewer staff-related train cancellations

The timetable adjustment measures that eurobahn had to take are achieving their goal: rail operations on the affected networks have become much more stable and therefore more predictable for passengers. Since the start of the reduced timetable on 8 April, eurobahn has recorded a significant reduction in staff-related cancellations. In OWL, train cancellations since the timetable change came into effect up to 9 June were only 0.5 percent due to spontaneous, unplannable staff shortages, and 0.6 percent in TWN. In comparison: before the timetable change, the figures were significantly higher in OWL (February: 11 per cent, March: 6.1 per cent) and in TWN (February: 6.9 per cent, March: 6.5 per cent). This means that the journeys currently offered by eurobahn are very reliable.

You will receive detailed information next week at our joint press conference with Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe, to which we will be inviting you shortly.