ICTC Day 1: Making the Intermodal Ecosystem Work

The morning opened with a keynote delivered by Ben Wassener-Jühe, Deputy Head of Terminals and Intermodal Strategy, duisport – Duisburger Hafen AG, which offered a clear reminder that inland terminals are no longer secondary players. They are coordinators within wider corridors, balancing rail, road and maritime flows under increasing pressure.

That set the stage for the second keynote, “The Risk No One Owns: How Inaction Shapes the Future of Intermodal”, where Julian Galvis, VP Sales and Marketing at Tideworks

Technology, argued that innovation in intermodal is rarely blocked by missing technology. More often, it is delayed by shared caution. The decision to invest is visible and accountable. The decision to wait feels safer, but over time, it shapes the direction of the industry just as much.      From there, the discussions widened during the opening panel, “The Developing Role of the Intermodal Terminal in the Combined Transport Ecosystem”, moderated by Kira Biernat, Marketing Manager, INFORM GmbH, with contributions from Ben Beirnaert, Board Member at UIRR and General Manager, Combinant NV, Mark Jansen, Director – Operations, Hupac, Koen Cuypers, Mobility Expert, Port of Antwerp-Bruges, and Olivier Hia, General Manager, DP World Liege Container Terminals. Terminals sit at the centre of a network of operators, infrastructure managers, technology providers and regulators. Intermodal, by definition, depends on cooperation. Yet several sessions made it clear that cooperation in practice is still uneven.

Data sharing quickly emerged as a recurring theme across the programme.als

In the panel “Synchronising Terminal Operations with Road and Rail: Building a Seamless, Technology-Enhanced Connection”, Jonas Lackmann, Venture Associate, CONROO and Robert Casties, Team Lead Software Development, Eurogate, focused on practical steps to reduce handover friction between modes.

The reality many in the room recognised immediately was still there: multiple systems, partial visibility and emails bridging the remaining gaps. Digital tools have advanced significantly, but harmonisation across actors remains a work in progress. Real-time information is technically possible, but not consistently embedded across the chain.

The regulatory update came through the keynote “The CT4EU Campaign – Unlocking the Potential that Combined Transport (CT) Can Bring to the Competitiveness of the European Economy”, delivered by Ralf-Charley Schultze, Director General, UIRR and Chairman of the conference.

Here, uncertainty around the revision of the Combined Transport Directive was positioned as a continuing challenge for cross-border planning and investment confidence. Combined transport may be promoted as a strategic objective at the European level, but clarity and consistency are still essential to make it work operationally.

Volatility was addressed head-on in the afternoon panel “Risk and Resilience: Readying your Operation for Volatility”, moderated by Matti Berndt, Senior Consultant, bloog, with contributions from Attila Czöndör, Board Member and CEO, Rail Cargo Terminal – BILK, Remmelt Thijs, Senior Project Manager, Portwise, and Mark Jansen, Director – Operations, Hupac.

Market fluctuations, infrastructure works and unreliable arrival patterns mean that theoretical capacity is rarely the whole story. Yard space, dwell time and buffer planning were discussed as practical levers rather than abstract metrics. Road freight still accounts for a large share of freight transport, partly due to its flexibility in volatile markets. Rail and inland operations require stronger coordination to achieve the same flexibility.      Later sessions on digital maturity and automation grounded the conversation further. In “From Excel to Ecosystem: Transforming Inland Terminals into Connected Intermodal Control Hubs”, Ian Rogerson, Terminal Systems Product Director, Fargo Group, spoke about how spreadsheets often become the glue between disconnected processes and why moving beyond that is usually incremental rather than dramatic.

In the closing panel “Realistic, Scalable, Phased: Automation Implementation in Intermodal Terminals”, moderated by Marcos Carneiro, Solutions Architect, CONROO and attended by Christopher Cavanagh, Head of Terminal System Department, Freightliner, Frank Busse, Partner, HPC Hamburg Port Consulting GmbH, and Frank Kho, Managing Director, ATAI, one message clearly stood out: before talking about AI, identify the real operational pain point. Technology should respond to context, not the other way around. There was also a pragmatic note on change itself. Large-scale transformation projects can lose momentum. Smaller, visible improvements often build trust more effectively. Dedicated ownership, clear priorities and incremental implementation were presented as a realistic way forward.

By the end of the day, one point came through consistently: intermodal already is an ecosystem. The challenge now is ensuring the systems, data and policies around it evolve in a way that allows it to operate more seamlessly.

The conversation continues on Day 2!