After a terrible Thursday, it has turned into a Black Friday for German train travellers on day two of a nationwide strike that has paralysed the railways.<br /><br />A court has dismissed a bid by rail operator Deutsche Bahn to halt the walkout over negotiating rights and pay, meaning it will continue until Monday – become the longest railway strike in Germany’s post-war history.<br /><br />“Deutsche Bahn should have reacted earlier to get a deal and prevent the strike,” said one would-be passenger in Munich. <br /><br />“A trade union has the right to strike. Whether that is reasonable is a different question. It’s all about influence.”<br /><br />With this the latest in a series of strikes since September, another traveller said he thought it was okay to stand up for what you want at first “but now they are really going too far”.<br /><br />“It is better than during the last strike,” said a female passenger. “But I think there is a limit. Enough is enough. If all of Germany went on strike, nothing would work.”<br /><br />The GDL drivers’ union accuses the railway of denying it the right to negotiate for 17,000 train stewards. It wants a five percent pay increase and a reduction in the working week to 37 hours from 39 hours.<br /><br />The timing is particularly delicate with the industrial action threatening to keep people from attending celebrations this weekend marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.<br /><br />The train drivers have been pilloried in the media, with Die Welt newspaper referring to a “stupid strike” on its front page and top-selling Bild calling it a “monster strike”.<br /><br />Even Chancellor Angela Merkel, who rarely gets involved in industrial disputes, appealed to the train drivers’ “sense of responsibility” and urged mediation.
