Problems in organizing rail transportation in Romania complicate the export of Ukrainian grain

Despite the fact that Romanian railways have a digital train traffic management system, coordination between private carriers and the infrastructure operator has significant problems, which leads to significant wagon downtime and slows down transportation, in particular, limiting grain deliveries from Ukraine to the port of Constanta.

The rail transport market in Romania is divided mainly between private carriers, while the share of the state operator CFR Marfă is only 16.04% (according to the results of 2025). This system promotes competition, but complicates coordination between participants in the process.

Theoretically, the IMComm information system coordinates the movement of trains towards the port of Constanta, but in practice, situations often arise when a train waits for a long time for permission to move, and at the moment the route opens, it finds itself without a locomotive, since private carriers are trying to load their traction fleet as much as possible and have no reserves. As a result, when the locomotive arrives at the desired location, the window for movement is closed again.

Coordination problems lead to long train downtimes, a shortage of wagons, a decrease in the turnover of rolling stock, a slowdown and reduction in transportation volumes, including Ukrainian grain.

Ukrainian experts note that the digitalization of the train traffic management system and the development of the private transportation market cannot ensure effective logistics without synchronizing infrastructure capabilities, schedules, and locomotive availability. Therefore, Ukraine needs to take this into account when developing a railway transportation reform to avoid logistical problems.