Deutsche Bahn in the crisis: Evelyn Palla should solve the problems

The previous head of the train division DB Regio, Evelyn Palla, is to become the new CEO of Deutsche Bahn. The German press agency from government circles learned this. The “picture” had previously reported. According to the proposal of the Federal Minister of Transport Patrick Schnieder (CDU), Palla still has to be appointed by the Deutsche Bahn supervisory board. The next meeting of the Supervisory Board begins on Tuesday.

Palla succeeds Richard Lutz, who has been running the federal company since the beginning of 2017. In mid -August, Schnieder had announced that he wanted to use a new train manager for the future, which should also implement the new strategy for the group. The strategy is to be presented on Monday. What is inside and how specifically it has already worked is not known.

Palla takes over the federal company in the middle of a severe crisis. In August, just under 60 percent of long -distance trains were on time, the infrastructure is ailing and is the main reason for the poor operational performance. The economic figures have not looked good for years, even if a slight improvement was recently recognized.

In recent years, the railway has tried to get back on track with various plans – but it could not spray great confidence in timely improvements.

For more punctuality, the infrastructure in particular should be brought to a better condition. In the short term, however, the high construction volume burdens punctuality, a large part of the long -distance trains are currently at least one construction site when driving through the country. An improvement should bring new construction site management, in which construction sites are only planned in certain time windows. The construction sites should therefore be based on the timetable, not the other way around. In August, just under 60 percent of the holding were reached in time in long -distance transport, i.e. with a maximum of 5:59 minutes delay.

The DB Infrago, responsible for the infrastructure, puts great hopes in the basic renovation of particularly important routes. The concept of so -called general renovations stipulates that the routes are completely blocked for months in order to be able to repair as much as possible during this time. More than 40 corridors are to be renovated by 2036. In return for the restrictions, the railway promised at least five years of building freedom. The promise now wobbles, and the construction range had to be adjusted on a few routes.

In order to set up the group more economically, thousands of positions are to be omitted and deficit parts of the group, such as DB Cargo, are to be trimmed for profitability. Finally, the numbers improved, but at the end of the first half of 2025 there was still a thick minus of 760 million euros.

So a lot to do for the new train manager who comes from South Tyrol and has been working at Deutsche Bahn since 2019. Palla, born in 1973, started her professional career at Infineon Technologies AG in 1997. From 2003 she worked at Eon in Munich, Cologne and Milan. In 2011 she moved to the Austrian Federal Railways in Vienna. From 2015 she was responsible for regional transport as the board of ÖBB Personal Transport AG. From 2015 she also held the office of chairman of the supervisory board of ÖBB Postbus AG.

To cope with the challenges, Palla is to get a new federal strategy on the hand, which has so far little known. The title already gives a hint where the focus will be: “Agenda for satisfied customers on the rail.”

“The train has to be on time, safe and clean,” said Schnieder last. In addition, the group had to be “faster, leaner, more powerful and also more economical”. The situation is currently “dramatic”.

The development of the infrastructure and rail operations depends heavily on the benevolence in the government district – and on the money that politics provides. Palla should now have the backing of the responsible minister. But is that enough to bring the train back?

The financial needs are huge. The railway recently received significantly more money, but still warned Lutz boss that these funds were not enough to really make the railway to the future. Despite the special fund, the federal government is saving. It will therefore be exciting how much money from the minister in the future for his new railway chief with Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD).