The net loss for the first six months of the year reached €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion), compared with a loss of €71 million in the period last year. Its operating losses also stood at €1.2 billion, after €339 million in the first half of 2023.

CEO Richard Lutz blamed an “ageing network prone to malfunctions” as well as “extreme weather events” and labour strikes that caused the company “considerable economic damage.”

Deutsche Bahn’s creaking infrastructure and poor punctuality have become running jokes in Germany and were put under the spotlight by the increased demand when the country hosted this summer’s Euro 2024 football tournament.

“The infrastructure is too old and worn to cope with this sort of situation with no problems,” Lutz said at a press conference. The company is spending billions to repair, upgrade, and extend its network after decades of under-investment.

Deutsche Bahn estimates that such work cost €4 billion in the first half of 2024, a 35 percent year-on-year increase. The floods that battered southern Germany in early June added to the company’s woes by damaging much of its infrastructure.

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The number of long-distance trains arriving with a delay of more than six minutes was slightly up on last year, at 37.3 percent, well above the European average. A historically long strike also hit the network early this year, with Deutsche Bahn estimating that it cost €300 million in total.

Drop-off in passengers

Passengers appear to be responding to the issues with the ailing rail service: in the first six months of 2024, there was a six percent drop in the number of long-distance passengers compared to the year before, with 64.2 million people taking train journeys this year so far.

With the latest figures looking so dismal, the rail operator’s target of doubling the number of kilometres travelled by train in Germany is starting to look much less realistic.

Nevertheless, Deutsche Bahn is confident that the negative trend won’t continue for long.

According to CFO Holle, sales in long-distance transport were already significantly better in June than in the previous months, while regional transport recorded six percent more passengers in the first half of the year than in the same period last year, partly due to the Deutschlandticket.

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Demand is particularly strong on the central routes, said Lutz.

The German government is also on board with the goal of doubling passenger numbers and increasing freight on the railway – but finances are still a concern. 

The operator is indebted to the tune of more than €30 billion, and its problems are a headache for the government, which wants the rail network to play a key role in decarbonising the country’s transport sector.

The government’s plan to invest €45 billion in the railways by 2037 had to be cut back to €30 billion after a constitutional court judgment last year upended its spending plans.

In light of the poor figures, Deutsche Bahn has said it will cut around 1,500 management jobs this year in order to make savings in operational costs, with up to 30,000 job cuts possible in future. 

With reporting by DPA