RDC Joins RailPulse Coalition

Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
RDC, whose companies include Iowa Interstate Railroad and Pop-Up Metro, LLC, has become the eighth member of the RailPulse Coalition.

RDC, whose companies include Iowa Interstate Railroad and Pop-Up Metro, LLC, has become the eighth member of the RailPulse Coalition.

RailPulse has an eighth member: Pittsburgh, Penn.-based railway investment and management company Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), which on Oct. 19 joined the coalition established in late 2020 to “develop, broaden and accelerate the use of GPS and other telematics technologies in North America’s freight rail industry.”

The other seven members of RailPulse, which is working to “provide real-time information on railcars’ status, location and condition to shippers, railcar owners and railroads” include GATX Corporation, Genesee & Wyoming, Norfolk Southern (NS), TrinityRail, Watco, The Greenbrier Companies and Union Pacific (UP), which joined the coalition this past June.

“Deploying this critical technology at scale presents one of the biggest single opportunities for our industry to improve safety and service quality: and while this offers many benefits to railroads, more importantly, it offers many benefits to our customers,” said Ida Posner, Vice President–Strategic Planning at RDC, whose companies include Iowa Interstate Railroad and Pop-Up Metro, LLC.

RDC Chairman Henry Posner III added, “RailPulse’s industry-first approach is well aligned with RDC’s culture of partnerships, and we look forward to bringing our global perspective to the coalition.”   

“The Board of RailPulse is excited to welcome RDC to RailPulse,” said NS Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Mike McClellan. “Interest in RailPulse and its mission continues to grow. RDC brings a breadth of railroad experience in North America and around the world. This demonstrates the continuing appeal of the transformative technology that RailPulse represents.”

According to the coalition, RailPulse is on track to meet its initial milestone in 2023 for the introduction of its cloud-based telematics platform, which is being developed “to accelerate the adoption of GPS and other technologies across the North American railcar network.” Member companies are currently facilitating trials with remote monitoring equipment from select vendors on their railcars. As the coalition receives and analyzes data from these trials, RailPulse says its members plan to share conclusions later this year in preparation of the platform launch.

In related news, RailPulse announced on May 31 that Railinc will develop, maintain and operate RailPulse’s technology platform for monitoring railcar location, condition and health across North American supply chains. And David Shannon in May was selected as the first General Manager of RailPulse.

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