The Next Step in the Rail Visibility Evolution

Rail freight is gaining steam in 2025. U.S. rail traffic is up 4.1% year-over-year, fueled by an 8.4% surge in intermodal volume. As more shippers turn to rail to offset tight trucking capacity and reduce emissions, the mode is reasserting its value in long-haul logistics.

But despite this growth, rail remains one of the least transparent segments of the supply chain. Unlike trucking, where real-time GPS tracking is standard, or ocean shipping, where container-level visibility has rapidly evolved, rail has long operated in a black box, offering limited insight into shipment location, dwell times, or delays.

Recent disruptions, like those during the CPKC system cutover in May, have only added urgency to the push for greater rail transparency. As customer expectations grow and supply chains become more time-sensitive, shippers need more than general location updates. They need rail visibility and timely, actionable insights they can trust.

Current rail visibility technology solutions

To meet rising demands for rail visibility, transparency, and reliability, the rail industry is investing in more innovative technology. New tools are making it easier to track rail shipments, monitor key events, and anticipate potential delays, giving shippers greater insights for more informed decisions.

While these systems don’t solve every challenge, they represent real progress toward a more visible and responsive rail network.

RailPulse Coalition

The RailPulse Coalition represents a significant step toward standardized, real-time rail visibility to the freight rail industry. Formed by a group of Class I and short-line railroads, railcar lessors, and logistics partners, RailPulse aims to unify fragmented tracking systems through a shared GPS-based platform.

Rather than relying solely on fixed trackside scanners, RailPulse-enabled railcars are equipped with onboard GPS and sensor technology. This allows shippers to monitor location and status throughout the journey, instead of only at terminal handoffs, providing enhanced rail visibility. The coalition’s subscription-based model, priced at $3.50 per car per month, is designed to make scalable, network-wide visibility more accessible to car owners and users alike.

By creating common data standards across a historically siloed industry, RailPulse is working to modernize the rail freight experience, bringing it closer in line with the real-time tracking expectations established by truckload and parcel delivery networks.

TransmetriQ/Railinc

Railinc processes more than 5 million intermodal events each day through its commercial arm, TransmetriQ, providing deep visibility into railcar and container movements. Its platform generates comprehensive event reporting, including arrivals, departures, grounding, chassis tie-ins and unties, and final availability notifications.

At the core of this system is the Automated Equipment Identification (AEI) tag system. Each railcar is fitted with an AEI tag, which transmits identifying data when it passes a trackside scanner. While this system is highly effective for tracking individual railcars, containers present a different challenge: they don’t have their own AEI tags. As a result, visibility depends on correctly associating containers with the railcars that carry them, introducing another layer of complexity and potential for delay.

Despite those limitations, Railinc’s infrastructure remains essential to modern rail visibility. By capturing and interpreting millions of touchpoints across the network, it provides shippers with the granular data needed to monitor dwell times, anticipate issues, and keep freight flowing.

IoT and Predictive Analytics

Rail visibility is evolving beyond static location tracking thanks to the growing adoption of IoT-enabled sensors and AI-powered predictive analytics. By equipping railcars, locomotives, and infrastructure with smart devices, the rail industry is starting to collect continuous streams of real-time data on asset condition, movement, and dwell patterns, in addition to location.

AI platforms are turning this raw data into operational intelligence. These tools can automate exception alerts, predict delays, and even recommend proactive responses to potential service disruptions, shifting visibility from reactive to predictive.

The market for this technology is expanding rapidly. Industry analysts project 67% growth in the number of tracking devices installed on freight wagons by 2029, underscoring a clear trend. Visibility is no longer just about knowing where your freight is; it’s about anticipating what’s coming next.

The Operational Gap

While rail visibility technology has advanced significantly, it doesn’t eliminate the operational challenges shippers face. Technology alone can’t solve for timing gaps, service disruptions, or coordination breakdowns that impact cargo flow and customer satisfaction.

One persistent blind spot is the gap between arrival and grounding. A container may register as having arrived at its final terminal and remain on the train for hours, or even days, before it’s grounded and available for pickup. Without precise updates on when the container is accessible, drayage scheduling becomes guesswork, increasing the risk of missed appointments or costly storage fees.

Technology also can’t prevent service disruptions, as illustrated by the CPKC system cutover in May. What began as a planned IT migration triggered widespread delays, visibility blackouts, and communication breakdowns across the network. Even well-equipped shippers were left scrambling to reroute freight or shift modes to maintain service.

At the heart of these challenges are complex multi-party coordination requirements. Unlike over-the-road shipping, which typically involves one carrier and one mode, rail shipments pass through multiple stakeholders, each with their own systems, timelines, and priorities. That complexity makes it challenging to maintain consistent performance, even with good data.

Compounding the issue is the reality that shippers have limited operational control over railroad priorities. Railroads dictate train schedules, switching windows, and yard availability. When delays happen, there’s little recourse. Rail visibility may tell you where your freight is, but it won’t move the railcar or reprioritize your shipment when service slows.

This is where technology hits its limits, and where the right operational partner can make all the difference.

Role of Rail-Served 3PLs

While rail visibility tools help shippers monitor where their freight is, rail-served third-party logistics (3PL) providers, like WSI, deliver operational control. These partners play a hands-on role in executing rail moves, bridging the gap between digital insights and physical outcomes.

Consider how WSI’s rail-served facilities turn visibility data into actionable outcomes:

Before a railcar arrives, WSI’s teams use ASNs and secure railroad system access to forecast arrivals and pre-position resources. When delays threaten to trigger demurrage charges, they can flex labor and leverage overtime to accelerate unloading. When service issues arise, their established partnerships with Class I railroads enable direct coordination between customers and railroad representatives.

“Our strong rail partnerships and our expertise in demurrage management help us integrate systems to provide more visibility and communication for all stakeholders,” notes Billy Vance, WSI’s Director of Rail Relations.

Rail-served 3PLs provide last-mile operational control, overseeing the direct management of railcar spotting, unloading, and release, ensuring that freight is moved efficiently once it reaches the terminal. When arrival and grounding times are misaligned, a responsive 3PL can adjust quickly, minimizing delays and avoiding unnecessary storage or detention fees.

3PLs also provide risk mitigation during service disruptions. When railroads experience outages, delays, or schedule shifts, these partners step in to maintain operational continuity. Their teams can implement alternate routing strategies, initiate transload solutions, or pivot to other modes when needed, without compromising the supply chain.

In addition to execution, rail-served 3PLs enhance communication, offering actionable information beyond basic tracking to help shippers respond in real time. With deep knowledge of rail operations and longstanding relationships with multiple carriers and terminals, these providers also offer the flexibility needed to adapt to railroad service variations.

In a mode where shippers have limited influence over what happens on the tracks, partnering with a 3PL provides a measure of control and confidence that technology alone can’t deliver.

Future Vision

Rail visibility technology has come a long way. GPS tracking, AEI event data, and predictive analytics provide a strong data foundation for better planning and decision-making. However, visibility isn’t enough to ensure freight arrives at its destination on time and without disruption.

Operational partners with rail expertise, like WSI, deliver the control and flexibility shippers need to respond to service variability, coordinate multi-party movements, and maintain supply chain continuity when unexpected issues arise.

Success comes from combining both technology that delivers insight and partners who can act on it. The goal is both freight visibility and actionable control over your rail operations.