Optimisation to deliver efficient locomotive planning at KCS

CHICAGO, UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 2018 – Biarri Rail, a global provider of planning and scheduling software for freight railroads is pleased to announce a new contract with The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS). The contract will see Biarri Rail deliver its cloud based locomotive master planning software — Boss MP Loco. The software will enable KCS to quickly plan and optimize locomotives, leading to improved efficiencies and utilization of critical railway assets.

Mike Walczak, KCS vice president strategic operational planning said, “We engaged Biarri Rail to perform a Proof-of-Concept using the Boss MP Loco software and this clearly demonstrated that we could use the software package to identify potential fleet efficiencies and help make strategic decisions on the deployment and positioning of our locomotive fleet.”

“For example, we were able to run multiple scenarios examining how many of our fleet could be equipped for Positive Train Control (-PTC) based on how and where we may choose to assign power on our cross-border trains that operate in both the US and Mexico.Our current locomotive planning tools do not provide optimization or “what if” capabilities to deliver the most efficient plan.”

“The Biarri Rail software has an intuitive user interface and powerful optimization algorithms, which will provide a step change in our planning capability. Based on the successful outcome of the Proof-of-Concept we are now implementing Boss MP Loco into our planning environment.”

Tom Forbes, Biarri Rail CEO said, “We are excited to be working with the team at KCS to drive this innovation with them. Boss is a new concept in railroad planning and scheduling software as it brings man and machine together; excellent algorithms, and simple user interfaces, that deliver real world results.

“This contract with KCS combined with the recently announced contract with TasRail in Australia really speaks to the flexibility of the Boss platform to provide value for railroads of differing sizes and types.”

About Biarri Rail:

Biarri Rail is a global leader in planning and scheduling software for Railroads and Rail Shippers. Through automation and optimization technologies Biarri Rail works to improve service delivery and reduce costs through the smarter utilization of critical resources.

Boss is a cloud-based platform for scalable Railroad and Rail Shipper planning, scheduling and operations software. Boss provides integrated planning across resources including train services, locomotives, railcars, yards and crew.

About Kansas City Southern:

Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holding is The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, serving the central and south central U.S. Its international holdings include Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port cities of Lázaro Cárdenas, Tampico and Veracruz, and a 50 percent interest in Panama Canal Railway Company, providing ocean-to-ocean freight and passenger service along the Panama Canal. Kansas City Southern’s North American rail holdings and strategic alliances are primary components of a railway network linking the commercial and industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.