The Railway and Transport Workers' Union (EVG) is calling a total of around 230,000 workers from around 50 railway companies to industrial action. Rail traffic in Germany will come to an almost complete standstill as a result. Deutsche Bahn is suspending long-distance services. Most regional and suburban trains will also be cancelled - regardless of which company they work for.

Passengers who wish to postpone a journey planned for the Monday or Tuesday can use tickets booked up to and including 23 March for long-distance services flexibly from now up to and including 4 April. Seat reservations can be cancelled free of charge. This was announced by Deutsche Bahn on its website. Here, travellers will also find a summary of the most important information on special compensation in connection with the strike.

In certain cases, rail passengers have the right to take a taxi themselves late at night. For example, if the last scheduled train of the day is cancelled and the destination cannot be reached by midnight. Up to 80 euros will be reimbursed by the railway if it cannot offer an alternative onward journey itself. If there is no longer any possibility of continuing the journey, the rail company must arrange accommodation and cover the cost of the journey.

It is always important to document train cancellations. The best way to do this is to get confirmation from a railway employee on the spot. Ideally, you will also be given a taxi or hotel voucher at the same time, saving you the trouble of having to lay out the money.

If you want to call a taxi or book a hotel on your own, you should ask the railway to confirm in advance that no onward journey is possible and that they cannot help you with accommodation.

Local public transport is within Verdi's remit. Buses, trams and underground trains in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Saxony, Lower Saxony and in large parts of Bavaria will remain in the depots on Monday.

In and around Bonn, the employees of the Stadtwerke Bonn (SWB), the RSVG and the KVB are also going on strike.

Verdi is also striking German airports on a large scale, including Cologne/Bonn airport - according to the airport association ADV, about 380,000 business and private travellers will not be able to take off. At the largest airport in Frankfurt, passenger traffic is at a standstill. At Munich Airport there are even no regular flights on Sunday and Monday.

In addition, the motorway company, which is responsible for the safe operation of the federally owned trunk roads, is affected.

What should air travellers do in response to the strike?

Air travellers should first contact the airline to find out what options are available - such as rebooking. Even if a flight is cancelled due to a strike, passengers can insist that the airline provide them with alternative transport to their destination - even if it is not until the next day. Instead, they can also demand a refund of the ticket price, but then they must make their own arrangements for getting from A to B. For cancelled domestic connections, airlines often offer the option of converting the ticket into a rail ticket. This will hardly be possible during this strike.

If you have booked a flight package and want to leave on Monday, you should contact the tour operator. Even in the event of a warning strike, the organiser has to ensure that holidaymakers reach their destination, explains consumer protection activist Menold. If a day's holiday is lost, the price of the holiday can be reduced proportionately.

If you have to travel on the day of the strike, rental cars or long-distance buses can be two options. The online portal "billiger-mietwagen.de" expects a very short-term increase in bookings and prices. Flixbus wanted to increase the most requested lines for the strike day if possible.

A small but: Since employees of the motorway company have also been called to a work stoppage, there could also be restrictions on long-distance roads.

If you are stranded at an airport because, for example, your flight to Germany does not take off, you can demand that the airline provide you with meals and drinks if you are more than two hours late, according to the passenger rights portal Airhelp. In addition, the airline must then make it possible for you to make two telephone calls or send two e-mails.

In the case of strike-related cancellations, you can insist on alternative transport. If the replacement flight is not until the next day or the next few days, the airline must put passengers up in a hotel and arrange for them to get there and back, according to the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Centre. In the case of package tours, the tour operator is obliged to take care of this.

The roads are likely to be very busy, especially in the cities where local transport is also on strike. If you are travelling to Bonn by car, it is better to avoid the Kennedy Bridge in the direction of the city centre this morning. The traffic jams on the Oxfordstraße environmental lane are likely to be particularly long.

If no trains and buses are moving on Monday, Bonn residents still have options for reaching their destinations: For example, there are various car-sharing services. However, the providers available in Bonn are already experiencing higher demand than usual. An overview of the offers can be found here.

Even if train and bus staff are on strike and public transport is thus largely at a standstill, employees have to show up at work on time. "The so-called travel risk is always borne by the employee, whether there is a strike or not," says lawyer Nathalie Oberthür. This is because a strike is not an unpredictable event. As a rule, it is announced in good time, for example the day before or even earlier. Because there are other means of public transport, distances are shorter, and there is car sharing, it's usually easier to get around in urban than it is in rural areas. But legally this is irrelevant. "If necessary, workers have to take a taxi at their own expense, which is also reasonable," says Oberthür.

If working from home is already part of everyday working life, the employee has a good chance of being allowed to do so on the day of the strike. As part of its duty of care, the employer is likely to be obliged in this exceptional case to allow an employee to work from home. However, there is no case law on this yet.

It is scheduled to start at midnight on Sunday and to last 24 hours. EVG leader Martin Burkert expressly recommended that travellers reach their destinations on time on Sunday.

In many places, the effects of the warning strike will still be felt on Tuesday. In the long-distance traffic of Deutsche Bahn, for example, it will take time until the ICE and IC trains are back where they are needed. Therefore, train cancellations are to be expected, especially during the daytime run-up, according to Deutsche Bahn. Airports may also be affected on Tuesday.

The big joint strike day has been planned for some time but it is initially a one-off action by the unions involved. Verdi wants to increase the pressure on the municipalities and the federal government with the warning strike in time for the start of the third round of public service negotiations in Potsdam on Monday. If both sides now reach an agreement in Potsdam, the railway union EVG would no longer be able to take further possible rail strikes in solidarity with Verdi anyway. But given the confrontational situation, further walkouts in the public sector are far from off the table.

EVG leader Martin Burkert does not rule out warning strikes at Easter. Nevertheless, the union has recently indicated that it has the interests of Easter travellers in mind.

Original text: wrm/dpa

Translation: Jean Lennox