La Deutsche Bahn (DB) had a more favourable year in 2021 thanks to the first wave of relaxation of health constraints during the spring and summer. As a result, the rail company recorded double-digit revenue growth, exceeding the level achieved in 2019.
DB Group revenues up 18.4 1Q3 year-on-year, to 47.3 billion euros during the 2021 financial year. However, this has not prevented the rail company from continuing to post losses In the first half of the year, the net profit before tax was €1.6 billion, down sharply on 2020 (€2.9 billion in 2020). After tax, the loss...
La Deutsche Bahn (DB) had a more favourable year in 2021 thanks to the first wave of relaxation of health constraints during the spring and summer. As a result, the rail company recorded double-digit revenue growth, exceeding the level achieved in 2019.
DB Group revenues up 18.4 1Q3 year-on-year, to 47.3 billion euros during the 2021 financial year. However, this has not prevented the rail company from continuing to post losses In the first half of the year, pre-tax losses amounted to 1.6 billion euros, down sharply on 2020 (-2.9 billion euros in 2020). After tax, the loss is €900 million. DB intends to return to operating profit this year.
For the CEO of DB, Richard LutzThe good news is the increase in passenger numbers on the main routes. Some 82 million passengers travelled on DB's long-distance trains in 2021 (compared with around 81 million in 2020). In reality, this is a year-on-year increase of increase of 30%2020, including two months of normal traffic before the pandemic-related restrictions came into effect. As a reminder, this traffic is still 45% below the record year of 2019. At that time, DB carried 150.7 million passengers on its main lines. The company is aiming to carry more than 200 million passengers by 2026.
On regional routes, DB carried 1.12 billion passengers 1.9 billion in 2019. It hopes to carry more than 2 billion by 2026.
The railway company has therefore continued to develop its fleet and its long-distance service in 2021, in particular by adding bi-hourly connections between Hamburg and Berlin.
Worsening punctuality
" We need rail more than ever. Every person who chooses rail, and every goods train that runs, is helping to combat climate change." said Richard Lutz. " People want to travel by train. Businesses want to transfer more traffic to rail. And political decision-makers want to continue to support this transfer." .
All these factors have strengthened the Strong Rail" strategy of the DB," said Lutz. And the positive trend continues: DB carried more passengers and freight at the start of 2022 than at the same time last year.
The only downside was a sharp deterioration in punctuality. Passenger services recorded punctuality of 93.8%, a decrease of 1.4 points. Mainline trains performed even more poorly. Their punctuality rate fell to 75,2 % compared with 81.8 % in 2020. Irregular events such as catastrophic flooding and strikes contributed to this poor performance.
Massive investment in the network
This year, punctuality is likely to be affected by the countless projects to modernise the network. DB will in fact invest 13.6 billion euros in this modernisation this year, after 12.8 billion euros in 2021..
The lack of capacity on the rail network and the increase in construction will remain the biggest challenges in the years to come.
" Last year showed us that demand grew faster than the capacity of our infrastructure. But to create more capacity, we first have to build, because you can't have one without the other. That's why we are continuing to invest in our network at record levels. This is essential if we are to decarbonise the transport sector. We need to build and modernise our infrastructure to offer more rail services and help combat climate change." said the CEO.
