Deutsche Bahn AG is the German state-owned holding company that groups the country’s dominant passenger and freight operators together with DB InfraGO, the infrastructure manager for the national network. It was created on 1 January 1994 from the merger of Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn, and remains wholly owned by the federal government.
Deutsche Bahn is at once the largest operator on the German network and, through DB InfraGO, the infrastructure manager that allocates paths and sets charges for its own competitors. DB InfraGO dates from 1 January 2024, when DB Netz and DB Station&Service were merged into one company working to a public-interest mandate rather than a profit target.
The arrangement is permitted under the Recast Directive, which stops short of requiring ownership separation but insists that path allocation and charging be exercised independently of any operator. Whether that independence is real inside an integrated holding is the recurring complaint of German market entrants.
Long-distance and regional passenger services sit in DB Fernverkehr and DB Regio. Rail freight sits in DB Cargo.
A group narrowed back to rail
The portfolio has been cut back sharply. DB Arriva, the European regional transport arm, was sold in 2024, and the sale of the logistics business DB Schenker to DSV closed on 30 April 2025 at an enterprise value of EUR 14.3bn.
The proceeds were used to reduce debt. Net financial debt fell by EUR 11.9bn during 2025, to around EUR 20.7bn.
Group results now depend almost entirely on German rail. The diversified logistics earnings that once offset weak domestic performance are gone.
The 2025 numbers
Group revenue rose 3% to about EUR 27bn in 2025, and adjusted EBIT turned positive at EUR 297m after several loss-making years. Continuing operations still recorded a net loss of EUR 2.3bn.
The main driver was an impairment of roughly EUR 1.4bn at DB Fernverkehr, booked because slower infrastructure improvement lowers expected future long-distance revenue. Reported net profit reached EUR 5.3bn once the Schenker disposal is counted.
Gross investment hit a record EUR 22bn, of which EUR 19bn went to infrastructure. For 2026 the group forecasts revenue of about EUR 28bn and adjusted EBIT of about EUR 600m.
Punctuality and the renewal problem
Long-distance punctuality fell to 60.1% in 2025 from 62.5% in 2024, with construction volume the main cause. Traffic on the network held steady at 1.1 billion train-path kilometres.
The corridor modernisation programme — closing heavily used routes entirely for months of concentrated renewal — now runs to 2036, and DB expects roughly a decade before the network is in acceptable condition. Every year of that programme suppresses punctuality on the routes being rebuilt.
Evelyn Palla became chief executive on 1 October 2025, succeeding Richard Lutz. She has made operational quality a direct board-level responsibility and added EUR 140m of immediate spending on stations, on-board comfort and passenger information for 2026.