“Railroad iron is a magician's rod, in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hi from Ireland. Derek here.
Last Thursday I was in Budapest at the Central European Intermodal Conference, with the people who run rail freight across the region. Firstly, what an amazing city. Time off was limited, but I did take a boat tour on the Danube and loved it. The vibe around the place was top notch…
On stage, everyone loves modal shift and agrees on its importance. Some of the presentations highlighted a different side and the conversation over coffee was very interesting. Moving freight on rail makes sense on so many levels. But reliability and the P&L win out, and right now rail is losing in the region.
One presenter talked about driving from Vienna to Budapest and passing trainloads of trucks on the motorway. What a shame on so many fronts. But rail’s Achilles heel is that it’s only as strong as its weakest point. One network disruption leads to many trains being stopped. And the freight trains are the first casualty as passengers must pass first. It's all about the power of the infrastructure. And investment in that can be hard to come by.
So this week is about a Day 90 nobody plans for: the day the network your project depends on isn't there.
New: Ask Day 90. Trying to solve a problem with tech and not sure what's out there? Hit reply and tell me the problem, plus your company type and size. I'll answer the best ones in upcoming issues: what's available, and what people like you found at Day 90. No vendor pays to be mentioned.
New here, or missed it? Your free Day 90 Pre-Mortem Kit is waiting: the one-hour exercise to run with your team before you sign, plus 10 questions to put to any vendor. Get the kit →
About a six-minute read.
In today's Day 90:
The Day 90 Question: what does your plan assume about the network?
Peer poll: what would help you most before you sign?
Day 90 Case: notes from Budapest, when freight goes back to the road
One thing for a Wednesday: ask your partners one question
News: CSX goes back to paper, and Hungary rethinks its Adriatic gateway
1. The Day 90 Question
What does our plan assume about the network around it, and what happens if that changes?
Most rollout plans treat the outside world as fixed. The rail path is there. The terminal has capacity. The river is navigable. The partner's system talks to ours. Then a line closes for works, a river runs dry, or someone else's IT falls over, and your go-live gets the blame.
Three things to do before you sign:
Write down the assumptions. Every external thing the plan needs: routes, terminals, carriers, partner systems, data feeds. If it is not on the list, nobody owns it.
Ask for the calendar. Planned operational works, migrations and upgrades from each partner for the next 12 months. Line closures and system cutovers are usually known well in advance. They just never reach the project team.
Agree the trigger. Decide now what makes you switch: "If the rail path is down for more than X days, we move to Y." Then test that your new system can actually make the switch, re-plan the route and keep the customer informed.
"If one thing outside our control changed tomorrow, which one would hurt us most, and who would know first?"
If nobody in the room can answer that, you have found your biggest Day 90 risk.
2. This week's peer poll
Last week: I asked about your biggest tech decision in the next 12 months. "Other" came out on top. That tells me I gave you the wrong options. If you picked Other, hit reply and tell me what it is.
Help me build the right thing. One click:
Before your next logistics tech sign-off, what would help you most?
3. Day 90 Case: notes from Budapest
When freight goes back to the road
Europe's policy is clear: more freight on rail, less on the road. The numbers this year are going the other way.
The numbers. UIRR, the European Combined Transport association, reported a 4.92% fall in Combined Transport in Q1 2026. Its explanation: line closures for maintenance and modernisation, mainly in Germany, where intermodal trains "were not granted adequate bypass opportunities". (UIRR)
In Hungary, the rail operators' association HUNGRAIL reported rail freight down 4.5% in tonne-km in Q1, with tonnage down 22% since 2023. Costs are up, revenue per tonne-km is down, and slower trains mean longer journeys. Road is taking the share. (AdriaPorts)
And in August, the Danube fell to record lows. At Vukovar in Croatia, up to 60 voyages were postponed, and the port warned that cargo could move to trucks and trains, at several times the cost. (Total Croatia News)
What I heard in the room.
Frustration. So many want intermodal to work. But it’s just not as easy to plan. This lack of predictability means a loss of trust. And that leads back to the road.
There is a real lack of focus on Human Capital. Education and a lack of change management.
Thought process has to be end to end, not point to point.
Unfair financial pressures on intermodal slots - you book, you are billed, whether you use them or not after someone else’s delay.
Harmonisation and coordination across Europe is so important for intermodal to advance.
Greater focus on planning of cargo urgency is possible. Amazon, for one, sees no long-term plan B to intermodal.
Why it matters at Day 90. None of this is an IT problem. But it lands on your IT. A TMS planned around a rail path has to re-plan when that path closes. A customer portal has to explain why the ETA moved. And if you report emissions per shipment, the number changes the day a container moves from train to truck.
The lesson: your rollout plan sits on top of somebody else's network. Find out what they are changing, and when, before your go-live date is set.
4. One thing for a Wednesday
Ask your three biggest partners one question. Carriers, terminals, IT providers, whoever your operation depends on most. Send them this:
"Do you have any planned works, closures or system changes in the next six months that could affect our flows?"
It takes five minutes. The answers will tell you a lot, including who doesn't know.
5. News worth your five minutes
CSX goes back to paper. On 27 October, a technology outage at the US railroad CSX knocked out crew calling, train bulletins and its electronic data link to other railroads. Interchange with the other big railroads stopped, and partners switched to paper. Safety systems and dispatching kept working, and CSX said it was not a cyberattack. Two days in, there was still no restoration date. The Day 90 angle: if your EDI link went down tomorrow, does your team know the paper process? Read more →
Hungary rethinks its Adriatic gateway. The Hungarian government has put its planned logistics terminal at Trieste under review, questioning its "financial, technical and commercial viability". The terminal was meant to give landlocked Hungary its own outlet on the Adriatic. A reminder that the network you plan around is always somebody else's decision. Read more →
That's a wrap
Hit reply and tell me: your Ask Day 90 question, or the outside change that hit your last rollout. I read every reply, and the best ones (anonymised) go into a future issue.
Know someone planning a go-live next year? Forward this. They can join at flow.workdatahq.com/join and get the Pre-Mortem Kit free.
Next Wednesday: CargoWise. Keep it, fix it or replace it? If you're on it, hit reply and tell me what the new pricing has done to your bills and what you're planning. Anonymous, always. On 18 November: notes from Intermodal Europe in Rotterdam, then Durban at Day 90.
PS: I’ll be at Intermodal Europe in Rotterdam next week. Reply if you’ll be there, it would be great to catch up over a coffee.
Fair winds and following seas,
Derek
