A $1 Billion Wake-Up Call for Rail Safety and Real-Time Monitoring
The February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, USA, highlighted critical gaps in rail safety, particularly the absence of real-time communication between railcars and locomotives. A total of 38 cars derailed, 11 of which carried hazardous materials. The derailment was caused by the failure of a wheel bearing that went undetected despite the presence of Wayside detector systems. Investigations revealed that these detectors, designed to identify overheating components, either failed to provide timely alerts or were unable to address the escalating issue, allowing the bearing failure to develop into a catastrophic derailment.
“In this derailment, although the bearing was on fire, the Salem Hot Box Detector (HBD) sent a noncritical alert that did not reach the crew. An alarm only sounded nearly 39 minutes later, and more than 20 miles away, in East Palestine. Because of design constraints, HBDs are likely to indicate misleadingly low bearing temperatures. In addition, the distance between HBDs varies, as do companies’ standard operating procedures related to crew alert and alarm responses.
Wayside detectors, like HBDs, vary in configuration, maintenance, and alarm criteria, and minimum universal standards don’t exist. This makes it impossible to standardize crew responses to hot bearing alarms and can make it, so a train crew doesn’t have enough time to respond” (National Transportation Safety Board’s Accident Report NTSB/RIR-24-05).
The aftermath of the incident exposed additional challenges, including difficulties in rescue efforts due to the lack of precise train consist information and details about the hazardous materials the cars carried. This delay in critical emergency response and containment efforts further magnified the impact.
Financial damages were estimated to exceed $1 billion, encompassing cleanup costs, legal claims, environmental remediation, and damage to rail infrastructure. This staggering figure underscores the urgent need for technological advancements to enhance the safety of rail freight transportation and prevent similar incidents in the future.
The Need for Technology Supporting Railcar Connectivity
Implementing real-time communication between railcars and the locomotive is essential for enhancing the safety of freight railway operations. This ensures that critical alerts, such as railcar health issues or End-of-Train notifications, reach the locomotive crew immediately – without delays from first sending data to a control center relying on cellular coverage.
The challenges posed by freight trains have drawn significant attention in recent years, and the need for a railcar connectivity solution is well-documented. Both the European Union and the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) have dedicated substantial resources to exploring technologies that address the challenges of freight train connectivity. The European Union has invested hundreds of millions of euros in new technologies, including the Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC), with an estimated retrofitting cost for the European fleet reaching USD 25 billion.
In July 2021, the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published a report on a connected railcars trial focusing on the integration of wireless network technologies. This trial employed End-of-Train devices, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee nodes on each railcar, providing valuable insights into the system’s objectives and limitations. While the report proposed several recommendations, the idea was never commercialized due to critical barriers, including significant power management challenges and the complexity of implementation.
Trilogical’s Solution
Recognizing the increasing challenges in managing safety, operations, and maintenance that the modern rail freight transportation faces as longer and more complex trainsets are adopted, Trilogical has developed an industry-leading Virtual Digital Automatic Coupling (VDAC) solution powered by proprietary Mesh Technology. Designed with energy efficiency and ease of deployment in mind, this solution provides a dynamic, low-power network that seamlessly connects railcars to the locomotive without requiring cellular coverage or pre-configuration, eliminating setup complexities.
The VDAC system synchronizes effortlessly to form a virtual network, providing real-time data on connected railcars and their positioning in the trainset. It enables instant safety alerts for critical failures and End-of-Train events directly to the locomotive crew, ensuring uninterrupted communication without dependence on cellular coverage.
This allows unprecedented visibility, enabling faster, more precise decision-making, and ensuring smoother operations and improved safety.
How VDAC Works
At the core of VDAC is Trilogical’s locomotive Gateway and RailBlazer railcar IoT device, which employs proprietary Mesh Technology. The system is designed with a “Plug & Play” approach, eliminating the need for complex setup and enabling rapid deployment.
Upon activation, the gateway and the railcar mounted devices automatically synchronize to form a virtual network, delivering several essential capabilities:
- Dynamic Network Creation: Enables the automatic identification of connected units.
- End-of-Train Messaging: Enables real-time status updates between the last railcar and the locomotive.
- Messaging Platform: Provides connectivity for instant alerts for any of the railcars to the locomotive
- Reliable (highly available) Network: Facilitates reliable communication within the network, even if not all the railcars are equipped with the RailBlazer devices.
The VDAC system’s energy efficiency ensures accurate data transmission while optimizing battery life. It can be tailored to specific operational scenarios, aligning with the events, sensors, and messaging requirements critical to ensuring reliability and maximizing user benefits.
Advancing Safety and Efficiency
On September 17, 2024, a report commissioned by the US Congress and conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine was released, examining the impact of long freight trains. The study assessed the long trains safety concerns, risk management practices, and railroad operations.
The report’s findings further underscore the critical role of telematics and real-time train dynamics data in ensuring the safe operation of longer trains. Managing weight distribution, compressive and tensile forces, braking, and communication is essential for trains exceeding 7,500 feet (2,286 meters) in length.
Unlike traditional wayside detectors, which provide only intermittent snapshots, continuous condition monitoring enabled by the Virtual Digital Automatic Coupling (VDAC) allows train crews to detect and address potential issues as they arise, anywhere along the train.
The challenge begins at the manifest train makeup stage, optimizing locomotive placement for distributed power (DP) and carefully assembling a train consist of cars with varying types, designs, sizes, and weights. Proper planning helps manage in-train forces, reduce derailment risks, and maintain train integrity.
While in transit, the VDAC system allows train integrity monitoring by identifying the sequence of physically coupled railcars, their positioning in the trainset, and health status – enabling safer handling and more efficient operations.
Leveraging Mesh Technology, VDAC delivers real-time alerts to the locomotive crew regarding active handbrakes, abnormal impacts, car health through vibration analysis, and loading status. It also provides immediate notifications of End-of-Train events – all without delays from routing data through a control center that relies on cellular coverage.
Trilogical’s innovative Virtual Digital Automatic Coupling solution sets a new standard for efficiency in freight train connectivity. It transforms traditional approaches to safety, operations, and maintenance, enabling seamless performance, and delivering superior service quality for shippers.
To learn more about how Trilogical’s solutions can enhance the safety and efficiency of your operations, visit www.trilogical.com/railways or contact us directly to discuss potential applications for your fleet: https://www.trilogical.com/schedule-a-demo
