Much of the world was shaken up by an IT outage on the morning of Friday 19 July. A faulty security update from software company Crowdstrike made it impossible to boot up computers running its antivirus application. Whereas airports, hospitals, public transport and many more were affected heavily, rail freight does not seem to have taken a hit.

RailFreight.com received responses from the Italian infrastructure manager RFI, rail software company RailCube, Captrain Italy, Azerbaijan Railways, CargoBeamer and Ukrainian Railways. None of the companies indicated that they are affected by the outage, but they are keeping an eye open for developments that may undermine their operations.

In the UK, passenger infrastructure faced disruptions, but rail freight kept its wicket intact. Among the major operators, DB Cargo in the UK reported no issues and said their European colleagues were also working as normal.

Moreover, GBRf told RailFreight.com that they were all clear but vigilant for any secondary issues, particularly in third-party systems. Specialist operator DRS/NTS, responsible for transporting everything from nuclear fuel flasks to groceries, said there was no disruption to their services. No other operators reported problems. Freight trains on the UK network appear to be ‘not out’ all around.

Crowdstrike update affects ports

Nevertheless, other infrastructure temporarily experienced problems due to the faulty update. According to Dutch media, parts of the port of Rotterdam ran into issues. Whereas it reported that crucial operations continued as normal, the two important container ship terminals ECT Euromax and ECT Delta were forced to stop operations. These terminals also have rail freight facilities.

Similarly, the Port of Felixstowe and the Baltic hub in Poland experienced problems.