DB Cargo: Union feared job cuts

The railway union EVG fears that 4,000 to 8,000 jobs will be cut at DB Cargo. "After all the cuts of recent years, this would be another dramatic blow," EVG deputy chairwoman Cosima Ingenschay told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). At the end of this week, two consulting firms are expected to present proposals for the future of single-wagon transport to DB's freight subsidiary. The Handelsblatt newspaper reported on the as yet unpublished reports and the figures they contain on Monday.

"Single-wagon transport is and remains the backbone of DB Cargo. Anyone who dismantles it knowingly accepts that thousands of collectively-protected jobs will be lost and that an additional 40,000 trucks will clog our roads," criticizes Ingenschay. This cannot be in the owner's interest. "After all, the promotion of single-wagon transport in the federal budget serves precisely to fulfill its economic mandate."

The EVG therefore proposes bringing DB Cargo's loss-making single-wagon transport under the umbrella of DB Infrastructure's subsidiary InfraGo and declaring it a non-profit organization. Then it would no longer have to generate profits. However, DB InfraGo is currently not a non-profit organization, but merely "public interest" and continues to make profits.

DB's heavily indebted freight transport subsidiary, however, has been pursuing a strict austerity program since the beginning of the year, as it must be profitable by the end of 2026. This is necessary following a ruling by the EU Commission, which prohibited further cross-financing of DB Cargo by the parent company at the end of 2024. DB Cargo CEO Sigrid Nikutta subsequently announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs.

The Ministry of Transport is considering a new ownership strategy for the DB Group during its summer recess. This could include a possible reallocation of subsidies. DB Cargo currently has a 90 percent market share in the loss-making single-wagon transport segment, but only receives 60 percent of subsidies.

This is due, among other things, to the fact that there is no “distribution mechanism” for subsidies that were initially registered by freight transport competitors but then not claimed.

In an RND interview, Nikutta said: "This needs to be improved. It's clear that we as DB Cargo cannot sustain losses with single-wagon transport." However, she wouldn't advise anyone to actually abolish it, because then freight traffic would shift to the roads.