When Containers Arrive on Time but Deliveries Don't: Lessons From Rijeka Disruption

A container can be discharged from an on-time vessel and still spend days waiting for the train that should take it inland. That risk is now unusually visible at the Port of Rijeka, where an October 10 derailment near Meja station blocked the direct rail connection to Zagreb. Vessels can still berth and discharge cargo, but rail movements to inland destinations including Budapest, Dunajská Streda in Slovakia and Inđija in Serbia have been disrupted. Depending on each container’s free time and transport terms, the delay can expose shippers to additional charges.

The accident adds another major interruption to a corridor affected by repeated derailments and planned railway works. For shippers, the immediate question is when their containers will actually leave Rijeka, whether alternative transport is available, and how much free time remains before additional charges apply. The gap between discharge and inland departure matters well beyond this particular port.

What closed, and for how long

A grain train operated by Transagent derailed at the entrance to Meja station at 9:25 a.m. on Saturday, October 10, a few kilometres from Rijeka. Eleven wagons went down an embankment, while the locomotive and two other wagons remained at the station. No injuries were reported. The driver had told the traffic controller he could not stop the train. Croatia’s railway accident investigation agency, AIN, has opened an investigation; the cause has not yet been established.

The derailment closed Meja station and the Plase–Meja section of the M202 Zagreb–Rijeka line to all rail traffic, suspending freight movements in both directions on the direct route. HŽ Infrastruktura is clearing damaged wagons and repairing the track and associated infrastructure. Croatian public broadcaster HRT reported on October 12 that repairs could continue through the end of the week. Passenger replacement transport is scheduled for October 13–16, but no confirmed date for restoring freight services has been announced.

Why trucks and the Slovenian route only partly fill the gap

Both container terminals, Jadranska Vrata at Brajdica and Rijeka Gateway, remain accessible by road. The Port Authority confirmed that truck collections and deliveries were continuing at Brajdica as of October 12, while Rijeka Gateway handles truck arrivals through its booking system. Both terminals were designed around a target landside transport split of 60% rail and 40% road. Replacing disrupted rail movements with trucks could therefore put additional pressure on road transport capacity and terminal appointments.

The port has another rail connection west through Šapjane and Pivka into Slovenia, but it is not an equivalent substitute for the direct Zagreb corridor. The route has been used during previous disruptions, yet its operational availability for the current closure has not been confirmed. It is longer and more expensive for several inland markets, and the Šapjane–Pivka section has a 20-tonne axle-load limit, compared with 22.5 tonnes on the principal Croatian route. That restriction can limit the weight of trains using the diversion.

Shippers should confirm whether their operator can offer a diversion for the specific train and container load involved. The existence of an alternative railway does not establish that a scheduled container service can use it during this disruption.

Repeated derailments and planned closures on the Rijeka corridor

The October accident follows several major derailments affecting Rijeka’s railway connections since December 2023. Planned infrastructure works have added further interruptions in 2026. METRANS customer notices and Maersk’s Croatian rail advisories document restrictions across multiple sections of the wider rail network used by Rijeka services, although not every closure represents a complete shutdown of the Zagreb–Rijeka line.

Date	Section	Cause	Closure or impact
11 Dec 2023	Meja–Škrljevo	Collision and derailment	Extended closure lasting approximately 12 days
9 Oct 2024	Karlovac	Derailment	Rail traffic disrupted for approximately six days
Jan–Feb 2026	Karlovac–Duga Resa, Slavonski Brod–Sibinj and other sections	Planned works	Multiple service restrictions, including closures without an available diversion for some flows
May–Jul 2026	Greda–Sisak, Novska–Sunja, Duga Resa–Oštarije and other sections	Planned works	Repeated closures affecting parts of the wider inland rail network
13–14 Jun 2026	Škrljevo–Sušak Pećine	Emergency rock removal	36-hour closure
Aug 2026	Hrvatski Leskovac–Karlovac	Planned works	Recurring six-hour restrictions on specified weekdays
1–6 Sep 2026	Križevci–Koprivnica	Planned works	Alternative routing and longer transit times for affected services
2 Sep 2026	Sušak Pećine	Derailment	Rail access disrupted for approximately two days
10 Oct 2026	Meja	Derailment	Direct rail connection suspended; reopening date not confirmed as of October 13

Selected incidents and infrastructure restrictions affecting Rijeka rail services or their onward connections. Historical incidents from railway accident records and RailFreight.com; planned restrictions from METRANS customer notices and Maersk Croatia advisories. The selection is not exhaustive, and some planned works affected connecting routes rather than the entire Zagreb–Rijeka corridor.

Planned maintenance and modernization are necessary on Croatia’s railway network, but their scheduling alongside unplanned closures complicates transport planning. For Rijeka cargo, an ocean schedule that remains on time can still feed into an inland rail network operating under restrictions. The resulting delay may not become apparent until a planned train departure is postponed or cancelled.

Where the delay sits: between discharge and the first train

For an importer in Budapest, the carrier’s ETA at Rijeka may still be met this week. The delivery date, however, depends on when the container can leave the terminal and enter the inland transport network. A successful discharge does not establish that the container has an available train connection.

That gap exists even when the railway is open. In its August 7 rail advisory for Serbian flows, Maersk’s Croatian office described operations at Rijeka Gateway as under control while reporting a two-day import backlog. The advisory measured this from the sailing of a berthed vessel to the loading of its first outbound train. The October derailment creates a further interruption to train departures, with the possibility of accumulated cargo requiring clearance after services resume. The earlier two-day figure is an operational reference point, not a measure of the current backlog.

The same visibility gap exists wherever containers depend on a separate inland movement after discharge. A missed intermodal connection, a shortage of available trucks or a delayed terminal release can leave cargo waiting in the yard after an on-time vessel arrival. Ocean tracking may show that the vessel has completed its voyage while the consignee is still waiting for a confirmed inland departure and the container’s free days are running down. Rijeka makes this problem particularly visible because its main rail connection has stopped altogether, but shippers using other ports face the same risk when the inland leg falls behind the ocean schedule.

The commercial consequences depend on the carrier and contract. Import terminal storage or demurrage free time commonly begins at discharge, so containers waiting for rail on-carriage can exhaust their free days before reaching the inland terminal. Detention or combined Demurrage & Detention (D&D) may follow different counting rules depending on the carrier’s tariff and whether the equipment has left the terminal. Carrier haulage and merchant haulage arrangements also affect who manages the disrupted inland leg, but responsibility for charges must be checked against the applicable contract and tariff.

The useful operational measure is the elapsed time between container discharge and actual inland departure, alongside the free time remaining. A vessel arrival update alone cannot show which containers are still waiting at the port, which have received a new train or truck allocation, or which are approaching chargeable days.

If the first sign of a stalled inland leg on your Rijeka volume is a storage invoice, see how ops teams flag containers that have discharged but not moved on.

What to re-check this week

Pull every container discharged at Rijeka since October 10, or due there in the next two weeks, with a rail on-carriage leg. Identify whether it is handled at Brajdica or Rijeka Gateway.
Put each container’s discharge date next to its applicable free time end date. Confirm whether terminal storage, demurrage and detention have separate counting rules under your tariff.
Ask your rail operator or carrier whether trains have been suspended, rescheduled or diverted via Pivka. If diversion is offered, confirm the revised transit time, capacity and weight restrictions for your shipment.
Where free time is close to running out, compare the cost and feasibility of trucking against the expected rail delay. Confirm terminal release requirements and book Rijeka Gateway truck appointments in advance.
Confirm whether each move is carrier haulage or merchant haulage, which party is responsible for arranging any alternative transport, and what the contract says about delay-related charges. Request free time extensions or relief before the invoice arrives.
After the line reopens, obtain a confirmed departure allocation rather than assuming your container will move on the first available train. Ask how much backlog remains and whether planned works on connecting routes could delay the onward journey.
Keep tracking the discharge-to-rail-departure gap after this closure ends. Repeated infrastructure restrictions in 2026 show why the inland leg requires monitoring independently of vessel arrival.

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