A strong increase in sales, but the bottom line is a loss of billions: This is how Deutsche Bahn's balance sheet looks in the red for the past year.

The state-owned company generated 47.3 billion euros in 2021.

This is an increase of 18.4 percent compared to the first year of the pandemic, 2020, when rail traffic was temporarily severely restricted due to the lockdowns.

Thiemo Heeg

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

But nothing was left of this turnover: DB made an operating loss (adjusted EBIT) of 1.6 billion euros.

After all: Compared to the previous year, the minus has decreased significantly, the company announced in its online annual press conference on Thursday in Berlin.

At that time, the loss of 2.9 billion euros was almost twice as high.

The annual result, including extraordinary effects, interest and taxes, has improved even more, it said - to minus 900 million euros after minus 5.7 billion euros in 2020.

According to the company, the positive trend will continue this year.

At the beginning of 2022, more passengers and more goods were transported than in the same period of the previous year.

“People want to take the train.

Companies want to shift more traffic to rail and politicians want to continue to support this path consistently.

All of this confirms our strong rail strategy,” said CEO Richard Lutz.

Number of passengers increases again...

The railways are also needed more than ever;

every passenger and every freight train helps protect the climate.

In 2022, DB expects an operationally “black” result.

"This is an ambitious but achievable goal," said Chief Financial Officer Levin Holle.

Sales are expected to increase to more than 48 billion euros.

However, all forecasts are subject to great uncertainty, among other things because of the unforeseeable effects of the Ukraine war.

There were more passengers on the ICE and Intercity trains last year than in the previous year.

Around 82 million travelers used long-distance trains in 2021;

In 2020 it was around 81 million.

From March to December 2021, around 30 percent more passengers traveled in DB long-distance transport than in the corresponding period of the previous year 2020, which was hit hard by the start of the pandemic.

...but the unpunctuality remains

However, the plentiful clientele was not rewarded with more punctual trains.

Overall, punctuality in rail passenger transport fell by 1.4 percentage points to 93.8 percent.

It looked particularly bad in long-distance traffic.

According to the information, only 75.2 percent of the trains reached their destination on time.

In 2020 it was still 81.8 percent.

"Special events" such as the flood disaster and strikes by the train drivers' union GDL had a negative impact.

A lack of capacity in the rail network and more construction sites will remain the greatest challenges in the coming years, the group emphasized.

Most recently, this had a negative impact on freight transport in particular, with drastic effects on traffic.

Above all, the logistics subsidiary DB Schenker ensured that the business result of DB was not even worse.

In unstable times, it has once again developed extremely successfully and ensured globally stable supply chains, it said.

"Schenker is pleased to mark its 150th company anniversary with very good results: record sales of over 23 billion euros, record profits - and a forward-looking strategy with which DB Schenker will continue to improve its competitive position," said CFO Holle.

According to the information, Schenker achieved the best operating result in the company's history with 1.2 billion euros and, according to the information, "financially stabilized" the group.

DB Cargo costs money

On the other hand, the business development of the freight subsidiary DB Cargo had a negative effect – even if demand in rail freight transport had increased, as it was said.

At least DB Cargo was able to transport more goods.

According to the information, DB Regio delivered a “stable operating performance”.

Local transport has full order books: As of December 31, 2021, the order backlog was around 93.6 billion euros, 10.5 percent higher than the previous year.

Regarding the situation in Ukraine, Deutsche Bahn boss Lutz said that since the outbreak of the war, DB has been making concrete contributions to alleviate the suffering of those affected with the largest aid campaign in the history of the company.

This included the transport of aid supplies over a "rail bridge" to Ukraine, as well as special trains, additional buses and free tickets for refugees.