RailPulse and the Struggle to Grow

Published February 19, 2025

Someone asked the question, “When are you going to equip your whole fleet?” The answer that came back was, “Well, we’ll have 150 railcars equipped by the end of the year.”

On October 24, 2020, RailPulse was introduced. From the press release,

“Today Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC), GATX Corporation, Genesee & Wyoming, TrinityRail, and Watco announced a venture to create a new technology platform that will help transform rail shipping in the 21 century. The new venture, Rail Pulse, will facilitate and accelerate the adoption of GPS and other telematics technology across the North American railcar fleet…

“The Rail Pulse partners, who collectively own nearly 20% of the North American railcar fleet, are seeking to accelerate the adoption of telematics to meet two specifc objectives. The first objective of Rail Pulse is safety. Early phases of the platform will incorporate hand brake and impact data, both of which could provide important safety data for the railroads, car owners, and shippers alike. Future telematics capabilities – such as onboard bearing temperature and wheel impact detection sensors – are envisioned as the technology evolves.

“The second objective is to increase rail’s competitive position relative to other modes by improving visibility into the status, location, and condition of individual railcars, which will meaningfully contribute to rail industry growth. Telematics capabilities will include data capture to support realtime track-level visibility, whether doors or hatches are open, whether the car is loaded or partially loaded, and other key performance metrics.

When RailPulse was introduced, there was a lot of excitement in the industry because this initiative was supposed to finally improve the industry’s chronic visibility and transparency issues. The five founding members (NS, GATX, G&W, Trinity, Watco) own roughly 20% of the North American railcar fleet. The promise was then (and still is today) that these five members would promptly announce aggressive device deployments to equip their fleets.

That hasn’t happened.