Deutsche Bahn Returns to Profit, Posts EUR 297 Million Operating Earnings in 2025

Deutsche Bahn carried 1.93 billion passengers in 2025, a 3.4% increase over the prior year, and returned to a positive adjusted operating EBIT of EUR 297 million after a loss of EUR 333 million in 2024. Barely three in five long-distance trains ran on time.

That gap between a EUR 630 million improvement in operating earnings and a punctuality rate of just 60.1%, down from 62.5%, captures the central tension in the group's full-year results. Heavy construction activity was cited as the primary drag on on-time performance, and the same infrastructure shortfall forced a EUR 1.4 billion write-down at the long-distance passenger unit, DB Fernverkehr.

Group revenue rose 3% to approximately EUR 27 billion. The net result after taxes stayed negative at around EUR 2.3 billion; separately, including the full accounting effect of the completed sale of logistics subsidiary DB Schenker, the group recorded a net profit of around EUR 5.3 billion. Proceeds from the Schenker disposal were channelled into debt reduction, cutting net financial debt by EUR 11.9 billion to around EUR 20.7 billion.

Every major business unit except DB Cargo delivered a positive operating result. DB Regio posted EUR 191 million in operating profit, and its bus operations returned to profitability for the first time in eight years. DB Fernverkehr recorded a positive adjusted EBIT of EUR 45 million, reversing a prior-year loss, but the EUR 1.4 billion impairment tied to lowered future revenue expectations and slower-than-expected infrastructure improvements absorbed those gains and more.

DB Cargo remained the clear outlier. Volumes and revenue both declined, and while restructuring measures improved the freight arm's operating result by approximately EUR 350 million, the unit stayed slightly negative overall.

Total transport performance across the group increased 2.7% to approximately 87 billion passenger-kilometres in 2025.

"Complacency would be misplaced," CEO Evelyn Palla said. "We will only have reached our goal when we are once again generating sustainable annual profits and can finance investments from our own resources."

Gross investments hit a record EUR 22 billion in 2025, with Deutsche Bahn financing EUR 5.9 billion itself. The group and the federal government plan to direct more than EUR 23 billion toward infrastructure renewal in 2026. Deutsche Bahn is targeting adjusted EBIT of roughly EUR 600 million on revenue near EUR 28 billion next year, roughly doubling the 2025 operating result if achieved.

Whether that target holds will depend heavily on whether the capital programme begins translating into measurable gains in punctuality and freight competitiveness, the two areas where 2025 fell furthest short of where the network needs to be.