Low water forces Rhine ferries to work short-time

The low water is putting a lot of strain on the Rhine ferries. As the Rhine ferry company W. Jansen & Söhne, which operates in Düsseldorf and Dormagen, announced that the company has applied for short-time work for the first time in its history. “We didn't make the decision easy for ourselves, but there is no other way,” said entrepreneur Jens Jansen to the dpa. He runs the company with his father and brother. In addition to the three-person family team, the company has five permanent employees and five temporary employees.

The ferry connects the south of Düsseldorf with the Dormagen district of Zons, which has a medieval core and is therefore popular with tourists and weekend trippers. The Zonser ferry has had more than 40 days of downtime so far this year. The previous high from 2018 with 46 days lost will soon be exceeded, says Jansen.

This year we didn't continue at the end of July because the water level was far too low. The company resumed operations at the end of August following rainfall. “We had hoped that this would be the end of the matter,” says Jansen. "It did rain, but there was only a little precipitation on the Rhine in southern Germany - and that's exactly where we need rain so that the water level in our area is sufficiently high."

Entrepreneurial family has to dip into savings

While his employees will soon go on short-time work, such financial support does not apply to father and son Jansen as entrepreneurs. “It is not yet a threat to our existence, but it is depleting the financial foundation that we have built up over the past few years,” says Jansen.

And when does he hope the ferry can run again? “It will have to rain heavily for a longer period of time - it will be a long time before the water level returns to anything like normal and the Rhine is navigable.” That won't be until next week at the earliest. "It is what it is - we can't influence the matter." The two brothers only run the ferry service as a part-time job; they also have other main jobs. Her 76-year-old father, however, still works full-time in the company.

Other Rhine ferries have also stopped operating, and the financial consequences are also significant. The Bislicher ferry on the Lower Rhine, which normally runs between Xanten and Wesel, does not run, nor does the Weiß ferry in Cologne, the Hitdorfer ferry in Leverkusen and the Kaub ferry in Rhineland-Palatinate. The list of affected ferry companies is long.