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Deutsche Bahn (DB) will have to take on more debt than planned due to the corona pandemic.

The budget committee of the German Bundestag will raise the debt ceiling of DB at its meeting on Wednesday to initially 32 billion euros for 2020.

A further increase to 35 billion euros for next year is also to be decided.

WELT learned this from parliamentary and government circles.

This year, the limit had already been increased from a good 25 billion euros to 30 billion euros due to the consequences of the pandemic.

According to WELT information, the renewed increase is justified on the one hand with the tightened lockdown.

On the other hand, Deutsche Bahn has to take on more debt this year because the planned increase in equity by five billion euros by the federal government can no longer take place before the turn of the year.

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The approval of the EU Commission necessary for the equity increase will no longer take place in 2020.

Also for another billion euros for climate protection so far the approval from Brussels is missing.

Deutsche Bahn has so far expected losses of up to 13.5 billion euros by 2024 due to the Corona crisis.

In order to offset these losses, in addition to the equity increase by five billion euros, savings and higher debts are also planned.

The demand for the railways collapsed drastically as a result of the pandemic, currently the capacity utilization in long-distance passenger transport is only around 20 to 25 percent, but the supply is almost fully maintained, so that high losses occur.

Competitors of DB criticize the planned increase in equity by the federal government as a distortion of competition and demand conditions from the EU Commission if it should approve the aid.