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Empty train tracks: only via emergency timetable

Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa

Anyone who travels further distances on Tuesday can hardly escape the strikes.

Employees at both Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa have stopped work.

The cabin crew strike at Lufthansa is slowing down the airline's important hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

The flight attendant union UFO has called on around 20,000 employees at Lufthansa and its regional airline subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine to go on strike.

At Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt, the cabin crew stopped work from four in the morning on Tuesday.

The strike is scheduled to last until 11 p.m.

During this period there will also be a strike at Munich Airport on Wednesday.

In Frankfurt, around 600 flights are likely to be canceled and around 70,000 passengers will be affected.

At Munich Airport, the airline expects that 400 connections will be canceled, which would affect around 50,000 passengers.

The UFO union justified the strike as a last resort if the talks were not making any progress.

Lufthansa is currently in several conflicts with unions and is on massive strikes, most recently among ground staff by Ver.di.

The strike costs have totaled 100 million euros so far this year, as the company explained at the annual press conference last week.

In addition, there are several hundred million euros in sales that were lost because travelers booked with other airlines, it was said.

Bahn relies on the state labor court in Hesse

The tariff dispute has also gone through with the railway.

The strike by the GDL train drivers' union has led to significant restrictions for passengers on Deutsche Bahn's long-distance, regional and S-Bahn services since early Tuesday morning.

On the railways, around 80 percent of long-distance trains were canceled due to the 24-hour industrial action by the train drivers' union GDL, as Deutsche Bahn announced.

The Hessian State Labor Court wants to discuss the ongoing train drivers' strike on Tuesday afternoon.

According to the court, Deutsche Bahn's appeal against a ruling by the Frankfurt Labor Court is to be heard.

On Monday, the railway tried in vain to have the strike stopped at the last moment before the labor court.

If the state labor court decides in favor of the railway, the industrial action would be formally stopped.

However, the effects on passengers remained on Tuesday.

The GDL announced the current strike at much shorter notice than the previous industrial disputes.

With such so-called wave strikes, union leader Claus Weselsky wants to increase the pressure on employers.

mmq/Reuters/dpa