2022/23 Competition figures

DB's annual competition report reveals how the transport markets in Germany and Europe have performed, forecasts key trends for 2023 and sheds light on competition-related developments. Some key points from the report are summarised below:

• Passenger traffic in Germany sees upward trend
  Transport volume in the German passenger transport market increased by 13% to around 1,028 billion passenger kilometres in 2022. This was still below the pre-Covid level (2019: around 1,100 billion passenger-kilometres). The pandemic continued to have a heavy impact in the first quarter, with demand only beginning to pick up noticeably as the year progressed. For 2023, a growth in transport volume of around 2.8% is expected.
• Public transport increases market share, road transport loses ground
  Public transport lost market share to private motorised transport during the coronavirus pandemic. With the pandemic subsiding, more customers in Germany began to use trains and buses again, and the market share of private motorised transport fell by 3.6 percentage points to 85.1%. Rail's market share in 2022 was 9.1%, only just below pre-Covid levels (2019: 9.3%). The use of the nine-euro ticket for regional and local transport (in June, July and August) contributed to this. In long-distance transport, the expansion of rail services resulted in increasing demand. Public road transport improved its market share by 0.6 percentage points to 5.5%. The share of domestic air traffic in Germany rose to 0.4% in 2022, remaining well below the pre-Covid level of 0.9%. This was due to the reduced offering of low-cost airlines and increased rail alternatives on many routes.
• Stagnating economy slows demand for freight transport
  The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been affecting industrial production and trade in goods since February 2022. In addition, disrupted supply chains and vastly increased energy and fuel costs have weighed on economic growth. Transport volume in the German freight market as a  whole fell by 0.4% to around 698 billion tonne kilometres in 2022. Weak economic growth performance in the course of 2023 is resulting in a further and sustained slowdown in the demand for transport. DB expects transport volume in the German freight market to decline by around 3.4% in 2023.
• Rail freight operators increase share in shrinking market
  Rail freight operating companies slightly increased their market share to 19% in 2022 (2021: 18.7%). The volume of rail freight transport rose by 1.3%. However, a decline in this volume is forecast for 2023. Road haulage's share of the freight market in 2022 was 72.1%, 0.1 percentage points lower than in 2021, while inland waterways' market share hit a historic low of 6.3% (2021: 6.9%).
• Demand for train paths at a high level
  In 2022, more trains ran on the DB rail network than ever before. The volume produced increased by 2.2% to around 1,133 million train-path kilometres. The share of non-DB rail companies fell slightly to 37.1% (2021: 37.4%). In the first half of 2023, it rose to 39%.