Wabtec Transforms Freight Rail with AI and Autonomous Technology

Wabtec Leads Freight Rail Innovation with AI. This was reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

As demand for delivered goods grows, Wabtec integrates artificial intelligence to modernize freight rail. The company’s cutting-edge solutions improve efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness, ensuring trains remain competitive in logistics.

Wabtec Introduces AI-Powered Rail Technologies

Train safety gained national attention after the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, derailment. Freight transportation dominates U.S. rail networks, and increasing consumer demand continues to drive cargo shipment growth.

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Wabtec recently introduced AI-powered solutions to enhance rail operations. The company showcased automation technologies to streamline inspections, assist crews, and optimize small-load deliveries.

How Wabtec Improves Rail Efficiency?

Technologies include robotics, AI-driven tools, and autonomous systems to improve rail yard functionality and workforce productivity. Wabtec’s vice president, Milan Karunaratne, emphasized how these innovations transform train operations.

Rail Ghost, a robotic sled developed with Carnegie Mellon University, slides beneath railcars without track removal. This advancement allows workers to inspect undercarriages faster and with greater precision.

Teleoperation enables remote train control, reducing preparation time before crews arrive. Autonomous locomotives like Maverick could handle smaller freight loads and stop within their operators’ line of sight.

The company already deploys fuel-injection technology that allows Florida-based locomotives to use liquid natural gas instead of diesel. This system could soon support hydrogen, methanol, and ethanol as alternative fuel sources.

Despite rail advancements, freight trucking remains dominant due to speed, flexibility, and an extensive highway network. Trucks continue to outpace rail in freight volume expansion.

Although Wabtec focuses primarily on freight operations, enhanced rail efficiency could benefit passenger transport. Most passenger trains in the U.S. operate on freight-owned infrastructure.

Moving goods by rail remains significantly more cost-effective than trucking, said Philip Moslener, the company’s vice president of advanced technologies. Rail transport is three to four times cheaper than road freight.

Moslener believes railway capacity is underutilized and that technology-driven efficiency improvements could allow trains to compete more effectively with trucking companies.

Source: www.axios.com

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