The German railway (DB) has reported an EBIT modified operating loss of 239 million euros in its results for the first half of 2025. This is much less than the 1.2 billion euros loss in the same period in 2024.
DB blames a bad condition of the infrastructure via the national network and the consequent adherence to the vascular train of the train for modified revenues that lack expectations at 13.3 billion euros, albeit 3 % in the first half of 2024.
DB numbers for this matter, while continuing to adhere to dates for passenger services at low levels of disappointing. Only 63.4 % reached the time in the first half of 2025, similar to 62.7 % recorded in the first half of 2024.
The total loss of DB comes despite the disposal of the previous logistical services section, DB Schenker, which was sold for 14.3 billion euros for the Danish Logistics Group in April. DB notes that the main goal of sale is to reduce debt burden, and this has already decreased to 22 billion euros at the end of June, with a reduction of 10.5 billion euros since the end of 2024. But critics point out that the new borrowing adds to the debt burden.
Lutz says that the DB companies that were announced last year had a noticeable impact on the company’s financing in the first half of 2025. He says. “The strict cost discipline is its fruits. We are making step -by -step progress.”
DB recognition that the request of passengers is still high can be a double -border sword. About 943 million passengers traveled on DB trains in the first half of 2025, an increase of 24 million in the same period in 2024, while passengers rose 4 % during this time to 41.9 billion. Almost half of this, 21.9 billion, was in long distance services.
However, with the disorder caused by the infrastructure of aging only only in the short term, the high movement of passengers can lead to increased dissatisfaction. In June, after a continuous criticism of the “Comprehensive Renewal” program, which includes the closure of the total lines, DB agreed to review it and reduce the number of closing operations every year. As a result, the program will now be extended for another five years, and during that time the failed infrastructure can cause significant delays.
DB Infrago, the infrastructure management company, was responsible for the highest DB loss in the first half of last year. It was reported that Mohsen’s situation for the same period in 2025, although it is still in negative lands, and the transition from the loss of profits before interest, taxes and amended depreciation of 700 million euros last year to 204 million euros this year.
Shipping movement in a decrease
As a loss, as it did for many years, it carried the shipping of DB 82.9 million tons in the first half of the year 2025, a decrease of 10 million tons in the previous year. Tonne-KM decreased by 16 % during the same period on an annual basis to 30 million.
DB attributes this to the “weak economy”, but it also notes that it has ended unprecedented contracts as part of the restructuring process announced last year, and was implemented to avoid disintegration after receiving government aid in the breach of European law. With the deadline to become profitable by the end of 2026, he is close to, the modified EBIT loss appears in DB Cargo 96 million euros for the first half of 2025, while disappointing, shows that the goal appears at hand, and much closer to losing profits before benefits before the benefits and 261 million euros registered in the same period last year.
Industry reaction
While at this stage last year, DB expects an EBIT profit, which is about one billion euros for the entire year, the company is now simply aimed at “a little more than the outcome of the operation.” The public performance of the company has been seized by critics, who are pressuring the new Yemeni coalition government led by the center in Germany to review how the national railway is organized, including calls to the independent infrastructure manager to replace the DB InfroGo.
“The DB Group shines in the hands of its owner, the federal government,” says Peter Westinberger, Managing Director of the German Railways Association (Die Güterbahnen). “Although DB Schenker is sold, the group has already increased its net financial debt by approximately 2 billion euros in the first half of the year.”
Interims Post DB reflects the difficult economic climate first in the International Railways Journal.
