DB Cargo has launched one of the most far-reaching restructuring plans in European rail freight in recent years. The Deutsche Bahn group company, led since 2025 by chief executive Bernhard Osburg, intends to cut around 6,200 jobs in Germany by 2030, out of a total of roughly 14,000 employees in the country. This represents almost half of the German workforce in the freight division. The plan affects almost all departments: operational staff, including drivers, shunters and yard personnel, as well as planning and dispatch, administration, sales and IT systems. The overhaul therefore amounts to a structural redesign of the entire organisational set-up.
The internal breakdown of the cuts is one of the most significant elements of the plan: around 4,000 positions stem from cross-cutting rationalisation and centralisation measures, while roughly 2,000 are directly linked to the restructuring of single wagonload traffic, the Einzelwagenverkehr. This segment, which involves collecting individual wagons or small groups of wagons from different customers and assembling them into full trains at marshalling yards, has historically been characterised by high labour and infrastructure intensity.
DB Cargo describes single wagonload traffic as a core service for European industry, but one that has long been subject to measures aimed at making it more sustainable and aligned with future prospects. In previous communications, the company had referred to digitalising the network and streamlining flows. However, the plan presented by Osburg marks a change of scale and, according to German media reports, single wagonload traffic will be reorganised, with the closure or downsizing of smaller yards, concentration of flows and a redefinition of the service offering.
The impact will be felt particularly in industrial sectors such as chemicals, steel and construction materials, which rely on single wagonload services to connect production sites not served by full trainloads or standard intermodal services. This raises the question of whether such flows can be replaced by combined transport or other rail-based logistics solutions, in a context where service flexibility and network reach represent a competitive factor.
The restructuring is rooted in structural losses that have weighed on Deutsche Bahn’s freight division for years. Efficiency programmes had already been launched under the previous leadership of Sigrid Nikutta, but an external assessment commissioned by the Government reportedly judged those measures insufficient to ensure structural balance. A further constraint is the European framework on state aid. The European Commission has requested that public funds allocated to infrastructure should not indefinitely cover the losses of a commercial branch such as DB Cargo. Osburg’s plan must therefore bring the division to break-even as early as 2026 or at least set it on a path to profitability, with full economic sustainability expected around 2030.
The leadership change between Sigrid Nikutta and Bernhard Osburg forms part of this context. Nikutta had taken charge of the freight division with the declared aim of relaunching it, including through interventions in single wagonload traffic, but her tenure drew internal and union criticism. The appointment of Osburg, a manager from the steel industry, signals the intention to pursue a more decisive shift, with greater focus on European international relations and a declared orientation towards profitability.
The scale of the cuts has prompted immediate political and union reactions. Trade unions in the rail and public sectors, including EvG (Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft, Railway and Transport Union), speak of a “massive cut” and highlight the contrast with the Government’s climate objectives, which aim to shift freight volumes from road to rail. In this regard, some German politicians are calling for guarantees that the cuts will not translate into a further loss of rail’s modal share, particularly in segments covered by single wagonload services. Moreover, the possible closure of smaller yards and facilities could have territorial repercussions in already fragile industrial areas.
From an operational perspective, reducing almost half of DB Cargo’s German workforce implies a likely contraction in capacity in the more complex and less standardised services, potentially shifting part of the flows currently handled through single wagonload traffic to road haulage. At the same time, however, DB Cargo’s restructuring may open space for other rail operators and for combined transport, particularly on international corridors and routes with consolidated volumes.
P.R.
