The head of Deutsche Bahn wants to “take a completely different approach to the renovation and modernization of the infrastructure”.
(Photo: dpa)
Deutsche Bahn boss Richard Lutz expects the current financial year to fall deep into the red after the Berlin state-owned company made an operating profit of 1.3 billion euros in 2022. “In the 2023 financial year, the very high energy costs and the significantly increased purchase prices will weigh heavily on DB,” he said on Thursday. Due to high inflation and infrastructure measures worth billions, among other things, an operating loss of around one billion euros is expected for 2023. After interest and taxes, the bottom line loss is likely to be twice as high.
With earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 1.3 billion euros in the past financial year, the railway group improved compared to 2021, when Corona slowed down operations and Deutsche Bahn made an operating loss of 1.6 billion euros. Without the logistics subsidiary DB Schenker, which achieved a record EBIT of around 1.8 billion euros in 2022, Deutsche Bahn would have remained operationally in the red last year. The rail division, which includes long-distance and regional transport as well as freight trains, lost 600 million euros in operational terms.
Due to high interest payments – at the end of the year the group’s debts were 28.8 billion euros – and increased taxes, the bottom line for the entire group in 2022 was a loss of 227 million euros, which Lutz reported as a success. The year before, a minus of 911 million euros had to be published, and in 2020 even a net loss of 5.7 billion.
In the current year, Deutsche Bahn’s indebtedness will continue to rise, according to the Board of Management. The talk is of net financial debt of 33 billion euros. One reason is the increase in net investments from 6.8 to 8.5 billion euros. Gross investments, which also include investment grants, primarily from the federal government, even climbed from 15.4 to 18 billion euros. Around two dozen main corridors of the railway are to be completely renovated in the coming years.
On Tuesday, the traffic light coalition agreed to provide Deutsche Bahn with an additional budget of 45 billion euros by 2027 to improve the ailing infrastructure. Numerous construction sites, train damage and staff shortages had reduced the punctuality rate in long-distance transport to 65.2 percent in 2022. The numerous canceled trains didn’t even count in the statistics. “The past year marked a turning point,” said Lutz. “It has become clear to everyone involved: We have to change course and approach the renovation and modernization of the infrastructure in a completely different way.”
More: Deutsche Bahn and its customers are threatened with a black year in 2023