Development in the first half of 2025
- Omission of negative strike effects leads to positive overall development in the first half of 2025.
- Tender wins and countermeasures with an additional positive effect.
- Significant improvement in development of operating profit – continued burdens as a result of construction – and infrastructure-related bottlenecks at DB Regional Rail.
| DB Regional | H1 | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | absolute | % | |
| Punctuality (rail) 1) ( %) | 90.6 | 91.2 | –0.6 | – |
| Punctuality (bus) ( %) | 86.7 | 86.2 | +0.5 | – |
| Customer satisfaction (grade) – rail | 2.2 | 2.2 | – | – |
| Customer satisfaction (grade) – bus | 2.1 | 2.1 | – | – |
| Passengers (million) | 1,153 | 1,128 | +25 | +2.2 |
| thereof rail | 877.1 | 855.0 | +22.1 | +2.6 |
| Volume sold (million pkm) | 23,001 | 22,544 | +457 | +2.0 |
| thereof rail | 19,935 | 19,508 | +427 | +2.2 |
| Volume produced (rail) (million train-path km) | 211.1 | 200.6 | +10.5 | +5.2 |
| Volume produced (bus) (million bus km) | 269.9 | 267.9 | +2.0 | +0.7 |
| Total revenues (€ million) | 5,369 | 5,032 | +337 | +6.7 |
| External revenues (€ million) | 5,302 | 4,953 | +349 | +7.0 |
| Rail concession fees (€ million) | 3,774 | 3,521 | +253 | +7.2 |
| EBITDA adjusted (€ million) | 423 | 264 | +159 | +60.2 |
| EBIT adjusted (€ million) | 103 | –66 | +169 | – |
| Gross capital expenditures (€ million) | 235 | 200 | +35 | +17.5 |
| Employees as of Jun 30 2) (FTE) | 42,891 | 41,128 | +1,763 | +4.3 |
| Average employees 2) (FTE) | 42,679 | 40,439 | +2,240 | +5.5 |
1) Adjusted to third-weighted presentation (S-Bahn (metro) AC, S-Bahn (metro) DC, DB Regional Rail without S-Bahn (metro)).
2) Since the first half of 2025 excluding interns and working students. Figures as of June 30, 2024 and for the first half of 2024 have not been adjusted.
In the first half of 2025, punctuality in regional rail passenger transport decreased in both regional and S-Bahn (metro) services. Continuously, the main drivers are additional capacity restrictions due to construction work and structural problems in the area of outdated infrastructure facilities, primarily due to superstructure faults and restricted speed sections.
The punctuality of bus services improved slightly.
Customer satisfaction remained largely stable:
- DB Regional Rail: Passenger satisfaction with the current journey remains unchanged, while the higher price of the Germany-Ticket has led to a slight decline in satisfaction with fares.
- DB Regional Road: Satisfaction in the bus area is largely stable. There was a slight downward trend in satisfaction with the price-performance ratio and the range of tickets on offer.
The number of passengers at DB Regional developed positively in the first half of 2025, partly due to the omission of negative strike effects from the first half of 2024, as well as tender wins. Performance development was positive overall:
- DB Regional Rail: The number of passengers and the volume sold increased, in particular due to the omission of negative effects from strike action in the first half of 2024. Positive effects also resulted from the start of operations of the Saxony-Anhalt diesel network in December 2024. This was partially offset by the omission of positive effects in connection with Germany’s hosting of the UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament.
- DB Regional Road: Tender wins in particular led to slightly positive performance development.
DB Regional’s economic performance was significantly better in the first half of 2025. The growth in income was only partially offset by additional burdens, particularly in the DB Regional Rail line of business, including higher expenses due to increased performance and higher personnel costs. Operating profit figures improved significantly, and adjusted EBIT was again noticeably positive.
Income development was positive overall:
- Revenues (+6.7%/€ +337 million): Increase mainly due to higher concession fees, the omission of negative strike effects, higher fare revenues and performance gains. This was partially offset by the decline in revenues from final invoices under transport contracts, in particular.
- Other operating income (+17.6%/€ +46 million): Increase mainly due to compensation payments for damages and refunds of expenses, as well as higher Government grants.
Additional burdens on the expense side resulted in particular from higher personnel expenses due to collective bargaining agreements as well as performance development:
- Personnel expenses (+11.9%/€ +157 million): Increase mainly due to collective bargaining agreements and an increase in the number of employees, among other things due to increased recruitment (DB Regional Rail) and tender wins (DB Regional Rail and DB Regional Road).
- Other operating expenses (+7.9%/€ +35 million): Increase mainly due to higher training costs for new employees, resulting in particular from intensified recruitment activity and taking on vocational trainees.
- Cost of materials (+1.0%/€ +34 million): Increase mainly attributable to higher infrastructure utilization expenses due to performance factors, including as a result of the strike-related decline in the first half of 2024, as well as the intensification of measures to improve services and vehicle maintenance. This was offset by factors such as lower energy expenses due to price effects, which were partially compensated for by performance-related volume effects.
Depreciation decreased in the opposite direction:
- Depreciation (–3.0%/€ –10 million): Decrease driven in part by the extension of vehicle useful lives (DB Regional Rail). The capital expenditure-related increase at DB Regional Road had a dampening effect.
Capital expenditure activities increased significantly in line with the requirements of the transport contracts awarded.
The number of employees was above the level as of June 30, 2024. This was due in particular to performance-related factors and intensified recruitment activity.
- Further increase in volume sold, mainly due to the omission of negative strike effects.
- Adjusted EBIT positive again thanks to countermeasures and omission of strike effects.
- Continued burdens due to construction- and infrastructure-related bottlenecks.
| DB Regional Rail line of business | H1 | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | absolute | % | |
| Passengers (million) | 877.1 | 855.0 | +22.1 | +2.6 |
| Volume sold (million pkm) | 19,935 | 19,508 | +427 | +2.2 |
| Volume produced (million train-path km) | 211.1 | 200.6 | +10.5 | +5.2 |
| Total revenues (€ million) | 4,579 | 4,278 | +301 | +7.0 |
| External revenues (€ million) | 4,522 | 4,221 | +301 | +7.1 |
| Rail concession fees (€ million) | 3,774 | 3,521 | +253 | +7.2 |
| EBITDA adjusted (€ million) | 362 | 213 | +149 | +70.0 |
| EBIT adjusted (€ million) | 96 | –68 | +164 | – |
| Gross capital expenditures (€ million) | 132 | 109 | +23 | +21.1 |
| Employees as of Jun 30 1) (FTE) | 31,392 | 29,892 | +1,500 | +5.0 |
1) Since the first half of 2025 excluding interns and working students. Figures as of June 30, 2024 have not been adjusted.
The positive development in demand continued in the first half of 2025. The omission of negative effects from the strikes in the first half of 2024 and the start of operations of the Saxony-Anhalt diesel network had a noticeably positive effect. The number of passengers and the volume sold increased as a result. Among other things, the absence of positive effects in connection with Germany’s hosting of the UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament had a dampening effect.
The economic development was positive. The positive revenue trend was accompanied by a less significant increase in expenses.
- Income increased: This was mainly driven by higher concession fees, performance-related growth, the omission of negative strike effects and increased income from compensation payments for damages and refunds of expenses. Lower revenues, particularly due to income from final invoices under transport contracts, had a dampen-
ing effect. - The increase in expenses was less pronounced: The main expense drivers were higher personnel expenses as a result of wage increases and a higher number of employees due to increased recruitment. Additional burdens also resulted from the intensification of measures for vehicle maintenance and servicing, among other things. In particular, performance development and the strike-related decline in the first half of 2024 led to higher expenses for the use of infrastructure.
Capital expenditure activities developed in line with the requirements from transport contracts awarded and were down significantly.
The number of employees rose significantly as a result of increased recruitment activities as well as performance-related factors.
- Performance gains drive positive development.
- Operating profit improves significantly – negative effects due, in particular, to wage effects and delayed vehicle deliveries.
| DB Regional Road line of business | H1 | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | absolute | % | |
| Passengers (million) | 275.6 | 273.3 | +2.3 | +0.8 |
| Volume sold (million pkm) | 3,066 | 3,036 | +30 | +1.0 |
| Volume produced (million bus km) | 269.9 | 267.9 | +2.0 | +0.7 |
| Total revenues (€ million) | 926 | 884 | +42 | +4.8 |
| External revenues (€ million) | 780 | 732 | +48 | +6.6 |
| EBITDA adjusted (€ million) | 61 | 51 | +10 | +19.6 |
| EBIT adjusted (€ million) | 7 | 1 | +6 | – |
| Gross capital expenditures (€ million) | 104 | 91 | +13 | +14.3 |
| Employees as of Jun 30 1) (FTE) | 11,499 | 11,236 | +263 | +2.3 |
1) Since the first half of 2025 excluding interns and working students. Figures as of June 30, 2024 have not been adjusted.
The moderately positive performance trend in bus transport was mainly the result of tender wins.
The operating profit figures improved significantly, but the economic situation remains challenging.
- Income increased: The main drivers were the performance development (in particular due to tender wins), price adjustments for higher costs, and the omission of negative strike effects from the first half of 2024. Lower income from Government grants (mainly in connection with the industry solution for local public transport that served to compensate for Covid-19-related losses) had a slightly dampening effect.
- Expenses increased to a lesser extent: The main drivers were a wage- and volume-related increase in personnel expenses, additional expenses for vehicle maintenance due to delays in bus deliveries, and higher depreciation as a result of capital expenditures in the previous year. In particular, this was partially offset by a volume-related decline in purchased transport services in connection with the strategic alignment in favor of transports operated internally.
Capital expenditure activities developed in line with the requirements from transport contracts awarded and were up significantly.
The increase in the number of employees was mainly attributable to the higher number of drivers as a result of performance gains.