Public Transport Covid and the holiday season cause traffic disruptions throughout NRW
Cologne/Bochum · The rising incidence of Coronavirus in the holiday season is causing problems for transport companies in North Rhine-Westphalia. In some cases, entire S-Bahn routes have to be cancelled.
The rising incidence of Coronavirus in the midst of the holiday season is causing problems for transport companies in North Rhine-Westphalia - sometimes resulting in cancellations of bus and train services. "After weeks of relief, the rise in staff absences is mainly due to an increased rate of sickness - also caused by a renewed increase in Covid-19 cases," the Cologne transport company (KVB) said last week, explaining that it will probably have to temporarily suspend several bus lines from Monday. According to the report, in addition to the actual illnesses, quarantine cases play a major role.
In June, the number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in North Rhine-Westphalia rose from less than 250 to almost 800, and on Friday the number stood at 698.5. In addition, it is now summer holiday time in North Rhine-Westphalia, and many employees are off work.
Last week, the Bochum-Gelsenkirchen tramway company (Bogestra) announced that all staff capacities are now exhausted due to the beginning of the holiday season and the increasing sickness rate. Until mid-July, one tram line will have to be suspended. In the past months, according to Bogestra, some drivers had given up their holidays to replace colleagues who had fallen ill with Covid-19. In addition, other employees who work in the head office or the maintenance shop, for example, but have a suitable driver's licence, helped out.
According to its own information, the railway is "currently affected by increased sick leave, which can lead to staff shortages regionally in the short term." For example, the S-Bahn line 6 between Cologne-Mülheim and Cologne-Worringen will be cancelled until 5 August.
At Vias, no entire line is currently threatened with discontinuation. "In spite of all the measures, however, we too are unfortunately cancelling individual train services due to a shortage of staff at short notice," it said. It is not always possible to maintain the usual basic frequency, and because of the holiday period not every sickness case can be replaced by a stand-by service.
DSW21 in Dortmund is currently also experiencing isolated cancellations in the bus sector. Rheinbahn in Düsseldorf said that despite some Coronavirus -related cancellations, they were now able to operate as usual. There are currently no major problems at Nordwestbahn either, as a spokesperson stated.
"We also have to confirm that we are experiencing a sharp increase in the number of employees who are ill," said a spokesperson for National Express. There are some cancellations. Improvements are expected from the end of July, she said. "However, it is not possible to foresee any further effects of Covid-19.
