Business View Magazine - May 2016 43
chemicals. A key initiative and communication vehicle
that the AAR recently introduced is the “State of the
Industry Report” series. The initial, five-chapter edition
– launched in January 2016 – details the industry’s in-
vestments in new technology and the innovations that
are enhancing safety across the nation’s rail network.
With input from rail safety experts like John Tunna, di-
rector of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA)
Office of Research & Development, AAR launched this
report to show how railroads continue to address safe-
ty in an industry where the train accident rate has fall-
en 45 percent since 2000 and 79 percent since 1980.
“The exciting thing right now is that technology is mov-
ing into the transportation field at a rapid rate,” Tunna
said in the report. The AAR collaborated with industry
experts to highlight a host of technologies in develop-
ment or in use now, including:
1. Ultrasound for Rails:
Railroads have long per-
formed safety inspections on track using ultrasound
technology similar to what doctors use to see inside
the body and diagnose ailments in patients. To speed
up the inspection of rails and achieve more precise re-
sults, railroads are improving this ultrasound technol-
ogy with “phased array” detectors. Soon, rail inspec-
tors will be able to look inside a piece of steel from
hundreds of angles in a matter of minutes and pro-
duce images with a level of microscopic detail that was
never before possible. If an otherwise invisible crack
is detected, the repair can be proactively scheduled
before a problem occurs.
2. Tapping Big Data:
Anticipating problems before
they arise is critically important for a safe and efficient
rail network -- and railroads are using Big Data to do
just that. Through the Asset Health Strategic Initiative
(AHSI), railroads are collaborating in an unprecedent-
ed way to identify equipment problems before they oc-
