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Wave of illness paralyzes bus traffic in Greifswald – What’s happening now!
In Greifswald, waves of illness are causing bus cancellations for school transport. Measures are being taken to maintain operations.
Wave of illness paralyzes bus traffic in Greifswald – What’s happening now!
The city of Greifswald is currently struggling with an acute shortage of staff in local public transport, which is having a noticeable impact on many passengers. Specifically, there are frequent cancellations in bus transport. This is primarily due to a high level of sickness among bus drivers, although there are also long-term illnesses and short-term absences due to vacation. Henrik Umnus, the managing director of Verkehrsbetrieb Greifswald GmbH, explained that on some days up to 50% of the services cannot be staffed. The Greifswald public utility company has taken measures to improve the situation by using a subcontractor to maintain at least part of the traffic. However, student transport is guaranteed; There are no outages here during peak times, as NDR reports.
The effects of the situation are also clearly visible on the lines. For example, line two to Schönwalde and Wieck no longer runs every 15 minutes, but only sometimes every 30 minutes. At the same time, the transport companies have to temporarily suspend the washing service for the buses, which can lead to the vehicles no longer appearing as clean on the outside. In order to defuse the situation, the city is looking for temporary bus drivers. Around four drivers are currently being sought, and interviews are intended to help recruit new staff as quickly as possible, as Nordkurier reports.
Challenges in local public transport
However, the shortage of skilled workers in the industry is not just a local problem. According to reports, around 20,000 public transport (ÖPNV) bus drivers are currently unavailable in Germany, and experts warn that this number could rise to up to 65,000 by 2030 if no countermeasures are taken. Accelerating factors include a high number of drivers retiring and poor working conditions that make it difficult to attract young talent. Currently 57% of bus and tram drivers are older than 55 years, which does not indicate a good recruiting situation, as Tagesschau states.
The industry is under pressure, not only because of the high average age of drivers, but also because of the lack of young talent. The often high training costs for a bus driver's license and bureaucratic hurdles when recruiting foreign workers make it particularly challenging for employers to attract new employees. In order to double the number of passengers, it is expected that 87,000 additional skilled workers will be needed in public transport by 2030.
In Greifswald, the municipal utilities are required to master the many challenges at the same time. While they look after the short-term staffing situation, the long-term strategy also needs to be relaunched to increase the attractiveness of the profession. The city is therefore asking passengers to be patient while solutions are being worked on. Information about the current traffic situation is available via the digital passenger information system, the municipal utilities homepage and also by telephone.