FACTBOX-German rail operator makes pay offer to union

(Reuters) - German rail operator Deutsche Bahn has made a new pay offer to the GDL train drivers' union to help resolve a months-long wage dispute.

Here are some facts about the dispute and its impact:

- The dispute between the German train drivers' union (GDL) and rail operator Deutsche Bahn started in March. Strikes, which are rare in Germany, started in July on both freight and passenger routes and culminated in a 62-hour strike last week.

The GDL has said it could stage open-ended strikes over Christmas.

- An economic think tank said the stoppages have cost Europe's biggest economy 75 million euros (54 million pounds) a day. Some economists have forecast freight strikes could cost the economy up to 500 million euros per day if they last more than a week.

- The stoppages hurt firms which rely on tightly scheduled deliveries. Carmaker Audi cancelled a shift at one of its plants due to parts shortages. A lack of goods trains caused bottlenecks at Hamburg port and Germany's retail association said the strikes had hurt sales.

- The GDL wants its own wage deal for its 34,000 drivers, separate from one agreed by the railways' 195,000 other workers which gave them a 4.5 percent pay rise. It says it is ready to lower its demand for an increase of up to 31 percent to between 10 to 15 percent, and has spoken less about demanding a separate wage contract in recent days. It has argued its drivers are underpaid compared to their European counterparts.

- Deutsche Bahn's last offer was: a 10 percent pay rise and a one-off payment of 2,000 euros. But the union says much of that raise would be cancelled out by extra working hours. The company wants to keep a sector-wide pay agreement for employees. Negotiations broke down last month but preliminary talks restarted this week.

- Deutsche Bahn, which the government wants to partly privatise by 2009, transported 1.85 billion passengers last year and had revenues of 30 billion euros.

(Compiled by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Elisabeth O'Leary)