High sickness rate: restrictions on regional rail services
An increased sickness rate among Deutsche Bahn staff is causing restrictions on some regional train routes in Rhineland-Palatinate until the end of the year. There will be cancellations on various regional train lines in the Southern Palatinate, as a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson announced on Monday. In some cases, replacement buses are being used. There have been restrictions on regional trains in the Worms/Grünstadt area since November 6.
In the Southern Palatinate, lines RB 53 and RB 54 are affected. The RB 53 will change from an hourly service to a two-hourly service. In the Winden-Wissembourg section of the RB 53 and on the RB 54 between Winden and Bad Bergzabern, buses will run instead of trains.
In the Worms/Grünstadt area, there have already been restrictions on regional rail services since last Monday, which are expected to continue until December 31. The RB 46 between Frankenthal and Grünstadt will only run every hour instead of every half hour, with replacement buses. Regional train lines 45 and 46 between Grünstadt and Monsheim will be discontinued and replaced by buses. The RB 63 between Worms and Bensheim now only runs every two hours, with buses replacing the canceled trains.
From last Friday to Sunday, there were major cancellations of the RB 66 between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken-Grumbach due to sickness among staff in the Rheinhessen signal box. Substitute buses were used.
Due to the high sickness rate among Deutsche Bahn employees, there's been a significant impact on traffic, leading to cancellations and changes in some regional rail services in Rhineland-Palatinate. The health of the workforce is a concern, as it directly affects the reliability of the railroad system.
Source: www.dpa.com
