Volkswacht Bodensee - German state railway loss widens, passengers warned of trouble ahead

Deutsche Bahn lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2025, compared to a loss of 1.8 billion euros a year earlier, hit by a 1.4-billion euro blow to the value of the long-distance division, DB Fernvekhr.

In bad news for long-suffering passengers, DB head Evelyn Palla told a press conference that the write-off resulted from expectations of a poor service stretching into the future.

"We have reassessed our future revenue forecasts, basing them on the actual state of our infrastructure," she said. "And this remains inadequate."

Long derided at home, DB made headlines abroad during the 2024 European Football Championships after fans and even players arrived at destinations hours later than planned.

Almost 40 percent of long-distance services arrived late last year -- not including trains that were cancelled, which are not counted in punctuality statistics.

Germany's government has promised to borrow and spend billions on renewing the network.

But Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder in September pushed back a punctuality target of 70 percent for long-distance trains to 2029 from 2026.

Speaking on Friday, Palla said it would take time for the railway to improve both its financial performance and its service.

"There is a long way ahead of us," she said. "It will take at least 10 years to get German railways back into good shape. We need to recognise this reality and put it into our numbers."

Though fully-owned by the government, DB is nevertheless under pressure to boost profitability.

DB Cargo, its loss-making freight arm, is facing an EU investigation under state aid rules and the firm said in February it would cut about 6,000 jobs in Germany, equivalent to half its domestic workforce.

Without the write-off, DB's operating profit improved by over 600 million euros to 297 million euros after an operating loss in 2024.

T.Ziegler--VB