When RailPulse was announced in 2020, it was looked upon as the roadmap for how onboard railcar sensors were going to be used in the industry. Rail shippers, long frustrated with the lack of visibility into rail operations, were excited for the adoption of faster, more accurate data so they could plan their logistics. (I can attest to this. The lack of an accurate ETA for shippers was one of the reasons why I started Hum).
RailPulse billed itself as the “Coalition of the Willing,” a collection of railcar owners with some 20% of the North American fleet who were going to start equipping their railcars with onboard sensors. The five founding members were NS, GATX, G&W, Watco, and Trinity. Other railroads and car builders soon joined.