Lots of passengers, but still deep in the red: The railway made a loss of 2.4 billion euros last year. According to the group, one reason is the high investment in the network, which has been neglected for many years.
Deutsche Bahn is deep in the red: due to high construction, energy and personnel costs, increased interest rates and several strikes, the federally owned company will have a loss of 2.4 billion euros in 2023. The railway announced this at its annual press conference. In the previous year, the deficit was significantly lower at around 0.2 billion euros.
Height Unpunctuality through dilapidated routes
The railway has also continued to decline in terms of punctuality. CEO Richard Lutz promised a “turning point” with more investments, renovations and ultimately more punctual trains.
A train is considered to be on time if it is less than six minutes late. Last year, around one in three long-distance trains was delayed. Punctuality also fell further in regional transport from 91.8 to 91.0 percent, as the railway announced. Nevertheless, more people traveled by train last year. The group recorded around 1.8 billion trips in 2023 – an increase of 5.8 percent compared to the previous year.
Congested routes and a network in need of renovation in many places caused the high level of unpunctuality. The railways and the federal government therefore want to invest more than ever in the coming years to get the infrastructure fit again. A lot is to be built – which in turn is likely to slow down traffic further in the coming years.
Bahn made advance payments for investments
The reason for the poor figures in the company’s balance sheet is that the railway made advance payments on the high investments in infrastructure, the company said. This year the funds are to be balanced by the federal government. Then the group wants to be back in the black, at least operationally. In 2023, the railway invested around 7.6 billion euros from its own funds in the urgently needed upgrading of the infrastructure.
Sales fell by 13 percent to around 45.2 billion euros in 2023. And the group also made losses in the operational area. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell to a loss of almost one billion euros – after a positive result of around 1.2 billion euros in 2022.
Win in Logistics area go back
The poor figures this year were also due to ongoing economic problems at the freight transport subsidiary DB Cargo and a cooling transport market, which was particularly felt by the otherwise well-performing logistics subsidiary DB Schenker. Schenker, which is up for sale, only made a profit of 1.1 billion euros last year – in 2022 it was 1.8 billion euros.
Hope for an agreement with the GDL
The board also commented on the negotiations with the GDL train drivers’ union and expressed hope that the collective bargaining dispute could soon be resolved. “We are on the right track, but the negotiations have not yet been completed,” said Human Resources Director Martin Seiler. “We work concentratedly.” It is hoped that a conclusion will be reached in the next few days. It is important that there is no strike for that long.
The conflicting parties declared at the weekend that they would continue negotiations. The GDL is refraining from further labor disputes for this long. The union has repeatedly paralyzed rail traffic in recent months.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of commuters and other travelers, industry was also directly affected by the cancellation of freight trains. The biggest point of contention is the reduction in weekly working hours for shift workers to 35 hours with the same pay, as demanded by the GDL.