Deutsche Bahn: 147 million euros in profit, but only 58.7 percent of trains on time

Germany's national rail operator has closed a half-year in which its finances improved and its service did not. In the first half of 2026, Deutsche Bahn made a net profit of 147 million euros. A year earlier, in the same period of 2025, it lost 760 million euros. Operating profit (EBIT) rose by 650 million euros, to 415 million euros.

"For the first time in seven years, our rail business is in the black," said group chief executive Evelyn Palla, quoted in the company's statement. She added that she would only be satisfied once the quality of day-to-day rail operations convinced her too. The company credits the improvement to the restructuring it has begun, to cost cuts and to decentralisation.

58.7 percent, and eight percent

The quality figures give little reason for optimism. In the first half of 2026, only 58.7 percent of long-distance trains ran on time. Cancellations are not counted in that figure. Eight percent of long-distance trains were cancelled in full or in part. That is three percentage points more than a year earlier, and the second-highest level since records began. Only the first half of 2024 was worse, when 12 percent of trains were cancelled, which was blamed on strikes by the GDL train drivers' union.

One consolation: only 3.6 percent of ICE and IC trains were cancelled with no replacement connection at all. Deutsche Bahn argues that most passengers could use alternative services, including when a train did not complete its run to its final station.

Among the causes of disruption the company lists a winter storm in January and a heatwave in June. It also answers complaints about unreliable rolling stock. By its own figures, the number of technical failures of the trains themselves, for example in drive systems, fell by more than 50 percent between 2019 and 2025, partly thanks to a younger fleet.

Political pressure

The data comes from the Transport Ministry's answer to a parliamentary question from the Green party group in the Bundestag. The MP Matthias Gastel says outright that the government and the railway cannot stand by while long-distance cancellations rise and stay high. In his view, cancellations and delays are often linked to vehicle faults. Preventive maintenance should therefore be strengthened, he says, and more spare trains and staff kept at key hubs.

For passengers the conclusion offers little comfort: repairing the group's finances does not automatically translate into punctuality. That requires new, working trains and more capacity at the hubs.