Train travel in parts of Germany was disrupted with delays and cancellations as rail workers seeking a 7 percent pay increase staged a series of warning strikes. Regional travel around the cities of Wismar and Rostock in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were most affected, state railway Deutsche Bahn AG said in a statement. The Transnet and GDBA rail workers unions also planned strikes in and around Frankfurt, Hamburg and Karlsruhe.

Today’s strikes have finished, most by 8 a.m., and will continue tomorrow and in the coming days to put pressure on Deutsche Bahn, Transnet and GDBA said in an e-mailed release. Some 500 rail personnel took part in today’s protest.

Third-round talks between workers and Deutsche Bahn stalled over the pay increase on June 30, Transnet Deputy Chairwoman Regina Rusch-Ziemba said yesterday. The government- owned rail company, trying to cut costs before an initial public offering next year or 2009, has offered 2 percent.

The unions, with 134,000 members, yesterday called for “massive” warning strikes. Rusch-Ziemba called the pay claim “realistic and fair given Deutsche Bahn’s record profit.”