Maestrano awarded paid pilot project with Union Pacific Railroad

The AIM-traded firm’s specialist rail analytics subsidiary Cordel Technology entered the North America market in May 2020, establishing relationships and credibility with railroad companies and engineering service providers.

It said the announcement on Wednesday was the first of several ‘pilot’ projects, designed to demonstrate both the data capture process and AI analysis of the resulting digital ‘point clouds’.

The US railroad market was segmented into classes by revenue, with the seven Class 1 railroads being the trans-national heavy freight companies which own the majority of the 140,000 miles of track across the 48 mainland states.

Class 2 regional railroads provide freight and passenger services intra-state, and Class 3 railroads are typically local lines serving a small number of towns and industries.

In addition, short line railroads provide freight, commuter and light rail services.

Maestrano said a further pilot project was in progress with a major short line railroad holding company.

“The US market represents over 38% of global expenditure on rail asset management,” said chief executive officer Nick Smith.

“It has been a core focus for Cordel over the past year and we have moved from the proving to the early revenue stage.

“Whilst this has taken longer than expected, we are now positioned for a significant growth opportunity.”

At 1348 BST, shares in Maestrano Group were up 2.1% at 13.4p.