A big plus for passengers: the train is on the up, but is struggling with delays

After Deutsche Bahn slipped into the red by more than one billion euros due to the pandemic, the company is now on the upswing again. While the group is happy about the increasing demand and full trains, the joy of many passengers is likely to be limited.

A significant increase in demand from travelers and good business at the logistics subsidiary DB Schenker caused a strong upswing at Deutsche Bahn in the first half of the year. “The trend reversal was successful: Demand is booming and we’re back in the black,” said CEO Richard Lutz. According to this, the company made operating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of around 876 million euros in the first six months of this year. At the same time, the train had to deal with more delays than usual.

In the first half of 2021, there was still an operating loss of more than one billion euros at this point. Because of the corona pandemic, demand had plummeted, but supply was largely maintained. However, the DB subsidiary Schenker had the largest share in the financial success. “It was able to almost double its operating profit compared to the first six months of 2021 to around 1.2 billion euros,” said the railway.

But the passengers are also returning. According to its own statements, the railway recorded more than 59 million travelers in long-distance traffic alone in the first half of the year. That was more than twice as many (plus 117 percent) as in the same period last year. In regional transport, demand rose by 60 percent to around 725 million passengers. Here, the 9-euro ticket in particular is likely to have further boosted demand from June.

Such numbers are still a long way from the pre-crisis level. In the first half of 2019, the group reported that it had almost 72 million long-distance passengers. The gradually returning customers often had more than difficult times on their train journeys. The overloaded and in many places dilapidated rail network is currently being renovated in many places – numerous construction sites are slowing down traffic. According to Bahn, only 69.6 percent of long-distance trains reached their destination on time in the first half of the year. “In the first six months of the previous year it was still 79.5 percent,” it said. A train is considered punctual as long as it does not arrive at its destination more than six minutes late.