Deutsche Bahn remains deeply in crisis, but its financial situation has improved slightly compared to the previous year. The state-owned company reported a loss of €1.77 billion for 2024—an improvement of 34.5 percent over the previous year. The operating result (EBIT) was minus €333 million, compared to minus €2.18 billion in 2023.
“This increase compared to the previous year is primarily due to repayments from the federal government for infrastructure maintenance work already completed in 2023 and 2024,” said DB CFO Levin Holle, explaining the positive development. Nevertheless, the group remains far from profitability.
All figures refer to DB without its logistics subsidiary DB Schenker. The former European local transport subsidiary DB Arriva, whose sale was completed in 2024, is no longer included in the figures,” explains Holle.
In addition to the financial difficulties, the railway is facing further challenges: the logistics subsidiary DB Schenker will be sold to the Danish freight forwarding group DSV in 2025. The resulting €14.3 billion will be used to reduce Deutsche Bahn’s high debt load. However, the situation of the freight division DB Cargo remains particularly critical, continuing to report deep losses.
DB Cargo: High losses despite state support
“DB Cargo is undergoing a fundamental transformation and continues to be under considerable economic pressure,” said Holle about the situation at the rail freight subsidiary.
In 2024, the operating loss (EBIT) amounted to €357 million, representing an improvement of €140 million compared to the previous year (2023: €497 million), but still a large deficit.
At DB Cargo, the situation was further aggravated by declining demand due to the economic situation. “Revenue fell by 3.2 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year,” the DB CFO continued.
DB Cargo’s transport performance fell significantly by 7.9 percent to 68.5 billion tonne-kilometres in 2024 (2023: 74.4 billion tonne-kilometres). If DB Cargo fails to return to profitability by the end of 2026, the rail freight subsidiary faces the threat of substantial repayments of state aid to the EU.
DB Schenker: Sale should enable debt reduction
While DB Cargo remains a problem child, Deutsche Bahn has divested itself of its most profitable division. The sale of DB Schenker to the Danish logistics group DSV will generate approximately €14.3 billion for Deutsche Bahn. These funds will be used to reduce the group’s high debt. Liabilities were already reduced by €1.4 billion to €32.6 billion in 2024. They are expected to decline further to €26 to €28 billion by 2027.
DB Schenker once again generated high profits in 2024, achieving an operating profit of around €1 billion. Nevertheless, the sale is unavoidable for the railway company to achieve financial stability.
“With our restructuring programme, we are underscoring our clear focus on our core business: the railway in Germany. The decision to divest from DB Schenker was therefore both correct and necessary,” said CEO Richard Lutz.
Chief Financial Officer Holle emphasised that the sale of DB Arriva and DB Schenker would drastically reduce the number of DB Group’s investments by over 60 percent compared to 2023. More than 120 companies related to DB Arriva had already been sold in 2024, and the Schenker sale would result in around 200 additional investments.
“The DB Group will thus be considerably more focused, less complex and no longer active in more than 130 countries worldwide,” said Holle.
Restructuring plan: job cuts and modernisation
Deutsche Bahn is pursuing a comprehensive restructuring programme that includes financial consolidation and infrastructure modernisation. A key component is the reduction of 10,000 jobs by 2027 compared to 2024, particularly in administration.
“For the administration and sales departments, this means: we are firmly planning to reduce the number of employees and managers by around 20 percent by 2027. Because only a financially healthy company can offer sustainable jobs in the long term,” Holle emphasises.
Despite the planned measures, the situation remains tense, and it remains to be seen whether the measures will be sufficient to bring DB Cargo into the profit zone by 2026 and to get the railway as a whole back on track.
