By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Since he became president and CEO of Norfolk Southern Railway in 2021, Alan Shaw has challenged employees to find new ways to make the railroad more productive, efficient, timely and growth-oriented. The status quo just won’t do, he has stressed.
When it comes to enhancing operational consistency, efficiency and safety at hump yards, NSers are in the early stages of adopting something that doesn’t fall into the “doing it the same or slightly different way” category: the Yard Planner software solution.
Provided by Wabtec Corp. (though its GE Transportation arm), Yard Planner is a shared analysis and decision-support platform designed to help improve asset usage and resource working sequences at a yard. Using the software, yard managers can visualize and monitor operations and automatically plan yard activities to get rail cars in and out of a facility faster and prevent idle rolling stock.
Yard Planner employs computer-aided, decision-making algorithms to reduce switching so cars can be optimally moved and assembled for outbound trains. Yardmasters gain car-level visibility to optimize movements throughout a terminal. The platform also enables pre-planning moves hours in advance and incorporates safe train-build practices.
Yard Planner — a decision-making, next-level AI product — “makes decisions that are incalculable by the human mind,” says VP of Transportation Joe Gioe. Norfolk Southern Railway Yard Planner is a first-of-its-kind, landscape-changing artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will have a huge impact at the railroad by enhancing safety, productivity and growth, says NS Vice President of Transportation Joe Gioe. It isn’t just a graphic-interface system that’s a better version of something that exists — it’s an entirely new and highly advanced platform, he stresses.
“I’ve seen a lot of railroad technologies, and they mostly just assist a worker in their daily tasks. This is a decision-making/thinking machine, a next-level AI product,” says Gioe. “It makes decisions that are incalculable by the human mind.”
NS has been working with Wabtec/GE Transportation for the past decade to develop Yard Planner. The Class I provided technical expertise during the development phase. NS VP of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Fred Ehlers has long been the visionary behind Yard Planner, says Gioe.
“It was a vision of how to be more productive in the future,” says Gioe. “It’s been a true partnership. This was built from the ground up.”
In early September, NS began implementing Yard Planner at its Norris Yard in Birmingham, Alabama — becoming the first Class I to adopt the platform in the process.
Norris Yard was chosen as the most logical implementation candidate among NS’ six hump yards because it has the highest car-volume density versus track capacity. The facility humps more cars per foot than the other hump yards, says Gioe.
In addition, Norris Yard — which handles a high volume of industrial products and most rail-car types — “is where most of our smart growth will come from,” Gioe says.
On any given day, yardmasters work in three different shifts there. When building a train for an upcoming trip — such as to New Orleans — the train needs to be staged somewhere else to keep hump operations flowing.
The yard in Birmingham, which features 56 bowl tracks, humps more cars per foot than the Class I’s other hump yards. Norfolk Southern Railway Using Yard Planner, the yardmasters can stage a car very close to its assigned track so a car can be processed to the minute, says Gioe.
“It addresses human limitations,” he says. “I’ve tried to outsmart Yard Planner and I can’t do it.”
Yard Planner is designed to improve car connections more than 10%, reduce rework more than 10%, decrease car dwell time more than 5% and trim administrative/planning efforts more than 40%, according to Wabtec.
Next, NS plans to implement the platform at its hump yard in Elkhart, Indiana.
“It’s our gateway to the west, so it’s a busy place. It’s the next location we know is key to helping us achieve smart growth,” says Gioe.
NS expects to complete Yard Planner implementation at the Elkhart yard in first-quarter 2024. During that time, implementation also should wrap up at Norris Yard. Implementation has two phases: the hump operation and flat switching operation for building outbound trains.
“We’re working on the second part at Norris Yard,” says Gioe. “Our goal is to implement Yard Planner at all of our hump yards in 2024.”
Meanwhile, NS continues to employ a data-driven approach to decongest yards by reducing the number of cars in the facilities. Car volumes and associated demand are analyzed, then data processing helps match car supply to meet service needs through several process-improvement tactics.
Now, cars move more directly to terminals throughout the network and NS can better predict when terminals need cars to meet customers’ needs.
Since the approach was instituted earlier this year, the railroad has reduced car delays by 30%, cut car cost per load and eliminated intermodal equipment that was roaming the network — moves that helped increase terminal productivity and fluidity.
Facilities throughout the network are much less congested, particularly NS’ major yards in Atlanta, Chicago and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
