We’re excited to share new coverage from FreightWaves. Joanna Marsh spoke with RailState co-founder and CCO, John Schmitter, to learn how RailState is building “Waze for trains.” “The idea is, ultimately, you’ll be able to get a real-time shot, just like you have a Google Maps or Waze, as to what’s happening on different pieces of railroad, different segments. And this is all trains, not just your trains. This is the entire network, every train,” Schmitter said. “So if something’s happening, you’ll know it in advance. It gives people time to plan and modify and understand the priority that your shipments are getting versus others on any given railway.”
“As you’re looking to invest in a plant or add a location, are you going to really have the rail capacity to be able to make all the shipments you want? There’s no independent data to say that,” Schmitter said. “You can talk to the railway, and what are they going to tell you: ‘Yeah, bring it on.’”
But RailState’s program will let shippers see “how good is that segment doing, how many trains, what kind of trains they are, what kind of priority you’re going to get. You have none of that now. What our customers tell us is that it enables them to have more informed discussions with the railway because now everybody’s looking from the same page.”