The article presents a historical perspective on the Romanian Railways information systems, as managed by Informatica? Feroviara? , the main IT service provider in the field in Romania. A brief overview of the various components and the initial modernizationstrategy is provided, together with a short discussion of present challenges and possible responses to the need for change. The main point is that the new business realities in the sector require an evolution from the big-bang approach to IS towards a more flexible and future-proof approach capable of responding to medium- and long-term uncertainties in the market.