German rail giant Deutsche Bahn is looking for a new CEO after it was announced that the current boss Dr Richard Lutz will leave the role two years early as part of ¡°a structural and personnel realignment¡±.
Sign up for more...
News ? analysis ? podcasts ? reports
I accept the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
State-owned Deutsche Bahn (DB), which is currently undergoing a restructuring process, said that the ¡°mutual decision¡± to terminate Lutz¡¯s contract had been made following a meeting between Lutz, federal transport minister Patrick Schnieder and Werner Gatzer, chairman of DB¡¯s supervisory board.
Lutz has been the company¡¯s CEO since 2017 and his contract had been due to run until 2027. He will stay in post until DB appoints his successor.
Schnieder said in a statement: ¡°I thank Dr Lutz for his great commitment in difficult times at the railway. I am sure that he will continue to give everything for the rails in the remaining weeks.
"I've always said: first the strategy, then the personnel. Our concept has its basic principles, now it's time to find the right person to implement it. The same applies to this selection process: thoroughness and care before speed."?
Last month, DB Group announced an operating loss of €239 million for the first six months of this year, which was an improvement of nearly €1 billion on the €12.25 billion loss made during the same period of 2024.?
Revenue was up by 3.4 per cent to €13.3 billion for the half-year but the company said this was ¡°below expectations¡±, due to ¡°fault-prone¡± infrastructure, which has led to ¡°continued poor punctuality¡±.
Only 63.4 per cent of DB¡¯s long-distance trains arrived on time during the first half of 2025 ¨C this was a marginal improvement on the 62.7 per cent punctuality rate in the same period of last year.
Despite these problems, demand remains high for DB¡¯s trains with 943 million passengers using them in the first half of the year - up from 919 million travellers in the first six months of 2024.
Schnieder will lay out the German government¡¯s plan to reform DB on 22 September when he will launch the ¡°Agenda for Satisfied Rail Customers¡± report.