After new losses worth billions, Deutsche Bahn is planning job cuts and cutbacks to get out of the red. The rail network must be renovated and both freight and passenger transport must be made profitable again.
“We need to make more trains with fewer people,” says CFO Levin Holle of the situation. Large-scale job cuts are being implemented, with 1,500 jobs being lost in administration alone. 30,000 jobs are to be cut within five years.
Unpunctuality and many construction sites
According to Deutsche Bahn, several hundred million euros have already been saved since March by the spending freeze. Nevertheless, due to a lack of punctuality (for example due to union strikes and storms) and renovations of the network, the influx of passengers in long-distance transport has ebbed away. The freight railway not only made more losses, but also transported fewer goods.
In total, the railway recorded a loss of 1.2 billion euros in the first half of the year, after only a slight loss of 70 million euros in the same period last year. In operational activities alone, there was now a loss of 680 million euros.
The adjusted turnover decreased by three percent to 22.3 billion euros. The fact that the railway wants to achieve a profit before taxes and interest payments of around one billion euros for the whole year is thanks to the repayments by the federal government. The railway had paid advances for the renovation of routes.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
