Deutsche Bahn to Cut 6,000 Jobs at DB Cargo
Deutsche Bahn will cut 6,000 jobs at its freight subsidiary, DB Cargo, in an effort to improve profitability. The job reductions will primarily target administrative and support roles. The state-owned railway is seeking to streamline operations and reduce overhead costs at its struggling cargo division.
- The job cuts represent a reduction of nearly half of DB Cargo's roughly 14,000 positions in Germany. The goal is to have 8,000 employees by the end of the decade. - This move is part of a broader restructuring effort driven by pressure from the European Union. The EU has prohibited Deutsche Bahn from continuing to cover the losses of its freight subsidiary, compelling DB Cargo to achieve profitability by the end of 2026 to avoid potential dissolution. - DB Cargo has been consistently unprofitable for over a decade, accumulating significant losses. In 2024, the division reported an operating loss of 357 million euros. - While DB Cargo is the market leader in Germany, its competitors collectively hold a market share of about 60%. DB Cargo's own market share fell to 32.1% in the first half of 2025, a significant drop from 38.6% the previous year. - The restructuring plan was developed under the new DB Cargo head, Bernhard Osburg, after a previous concept by his predecessor, Sigrid Nikutta, was rejected following a negative external assessment. - A key area for job reduction is the single-wagon freight business, a traditionally loss-making sector where individual wagons are collected from customers and assembled into trains. This area will see its workforce reduced from 7,000 to 4,500. - The Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft (EVG), the German railway union, has announced its opposition to the scale of the job cuts and has vowed to fight for every job, signaling tough negotiations ahead. - The company aims to avoid compulsory redundancies by offering affected employees other positions within the wider Deutsche Bahn group, which employs 220,000 people in Germany. A significant portion of the workforce reduction may also be managed through natural attrition, as almost half of DB Cargo's employees are over 50 years old.
