Operating profit for German railway operator Deutsche Bahn fell by 5.7 percent to 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) last year due to the costs of strikes by drivers and a storm last spring, according to figures seen by Reuters. Revenues at the state-owned company rose 1.5 percent to 39.7 billion euros, slightly below the level it had expected. It suffered from weakness in its core transport business with operating profit for long-distance trains down by about a third, due partly to tough competition from buses. The company expects revenues to increase by around 7 percent to 42.5 billion euros this year and sees profit rising slightly too, despite being in the red overall in January because of declines in demand for long-distance transport and rail freight. In 2014 Deutsche Bahn made less than 60 percent of its profit in Germany compared with more than 80 percent in 2008, with the company partly blaming higher electricity costs and higher wage agreements for workers in recent years. Deutsche Bahn has a logistics division for international air and ocean freight plus European land transport. A Deutsche Bahn spokesman declined to comment on the figures ahead of a news conference on March 19 to present the company's full year results. The German government had planned to sell a minority stake in Deutsche Bahn about eight years ago but canceled that when the global financial crisis hit in 2008. (Reuters)