Anacostia Rail Holdings adopts advanced RailPulse Rail Car Telematics

Anacostia Rail Holdings (ARH) has announced that it has entered into an agreement with RailPulse, an important industry innovation that provides location and safety telematics.

Anacostia’s Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad (CSS) subsidiary is the first ARH railroad that will install maintenance-free telematics units supported by the RailPulse open-architecture railcar platform on 100 recently delivered rail cars.

Application of RailPulse technology to the new CSS cars will result in the most efficient utilization of this equipment for shippers. The 48-foot, 115-ton capacity, transverse-style cars each hold up to five steel coils and are equipped with covers for all-weather transport.

Built to perform in the harshest operating environments of freight rail, the powerful capabilities of the IQ Series gateway—supplied by Amsted Digital Solutions—is paired with advanced machine learning technology that virtually eliminates the need for specialized external sensors.

As a RailPulse subscriber, Anacostia’s railroads will have access to telematics for all tagged cars that are routed to or from online customers, regardless of car ownership.

“We have supported RailPulse since its 2020 inception and are enthusiastic about the coalition’s initiative to create an industry-wide opportunity to increase both shipment visibility and rail car safety,” says Eric Jakubowski, ARH VP & Chief Commercial Officer.

“This vote of confidence from Anacostia Rail Holdings is further proof that rail industry leaders are invested in giving shippers the visibility they need,” says RailPulse General Manager David Shannon. “Early users are supporting our vision for a smarter rail ecosystem.”

Faster, deeper shipment visibility

Anacostia shippers will benefit from the RailPulse platform’s many capabilities including:

 Dynamic ETA calculations and geofence entry and exit alerts for first- and last-mile validation

 Accurate load status for precise loaded and empty mileage calculations

 Impact detection

 Stationary loading/unloading detection

 Real-time monitoring of brake slide events

 Railcar dwell reporting

Peter Gilbertson, ARH CEO and President says, “ARH is thrilled to be making the first step for our railroads to use and explore the advanced technology of RailPulse. We look forward to adding similar technology to more of our equipment in the future.”