Deutsche Bahn chief executive Richard Lutz is a man who radiates a general sense of optimism and calm, perhaps a prerequisite for someone in his job. "Deutsche Bahn is experiencing its biggest crisis of the last 30 years," Lutz, head of the state-owned company since 2017, said at the presentation of its 2024 annual report in Berlin. "In key areas, we are a long way from what we set out to do and what our customers expect from us."

In the long history of Germany's national rail operator, it has never been as unpunctual as it was last year. Only 62.5% of long-distance trains arrived without delays of six minutes or more. And even this statistic is inflated, because it does not include canceled trains or trains that terminate their journey prematurely, in other words, the ones that never reach their final destination.

Deutsche Bahn has long since taken to adding the qualifier "expected" to its arrival times. In 2024, the company had to pay its customers almost €200 million ($215 million) in compensation for delays and train cancellations, almost €70 million more than in the previous year.

But the delays are not the only problem. In 2023, Deutsche Bahn recorded a loss of €2.7 billion. And while last year the company's balance sheet reported a loss of only €330 million, that was only because the federal government injected €1.8 billion........

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