Germany’s Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder has relieved Deutsche Bahn’s CEO Richard Lutz of his duties, sources within the company have confirmed to the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Lutz has been a member of the Deutsche Bahn board since 2010 and has served as CEO since his appointment in 2017 by then-Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt. He is expected to remain in the position until a successor is identified.
The move comes following the presentation of Deutsche Bahn’s interim financial results two weeks ago, which revealed a loss of €760 million for the first six months of the year. Despite a nearly four percent increase in performance – reaching 41.9 billion passenger kilometers – punctuality for long-distance trains saw only a marginal improvement to 63.4 percent.
The railway workers’ union EVG had publicly called for Lutz’s replacement following the release of the financial figures, while the GDBA railway and transport union avoided taking a public stance on the matter.