Since 1986, railway companies have exchanged messages to identify the location of freight wagons and wagon mileage. The message exchanges
- H38 “Location of Freight Wagons”
- H39 “Wagon Mileage”
will stop by the end of 2016 and be replaced by ISR (International Service Reliability).
Raildata, a UIC special group, whose principal aim is to design, develop and run IT services to support the European rail freight business of its members, now uses an updated tracking system for freight wagons, enabling information to be obtained in a faster, simpler and more reliable way.
Much has changed in the last 30 years: the organisation of the railways has evolved, technologies have undergone a revolutionary change – however the need to track the movement of wagons and their mileage is even more important today than 30 years ago in terms of customer information, maintenance and safety..
The old way of sending messages to railways and waiting for a reply is changing. The IT services provided by Raildata have become more modernised with new and value-added features. The applications of ISR (International Service Reliability), an information system developed and operated by Raildata, and a common tool of Raildata railway undertakings used to track both loaded and empty freight wagons and consignments across large parts of Europe, now include new functions with regard to the import of consignment information, queries and transport plans, as well as wagon monitoring during train operation.