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”.
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 – 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.