Kinder Morgan Finalizes Software-as-a-Service Contract with Tracsis for Rail Yard Control

Tracsis completes negotiations with energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan, for a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) contract for remote rail yard control at its Deepwater Terminal in Pasadena, TX.

Kinder Morgan’s yard control system will be hosted at Tracsis’ state-of-the-art datacenter which provides a number of benefits to its operation including access to the latest version of Tracsis Domain Operations Controller (DOC®) system and high system availability. The SaaS delivery model allows customers to take advantage of Tracsis DOC system with a much lower upfront investment and implementation costs.

Kinder Morgan will access Tracsis DOC Yard Control System to provide remote control of switch machines and train routing. Communications from the central office to the field equipment is accomplished with Tracsis RADiANTTM spread spectrum data radios.

In addition to controlling switch machines from a central location, Kinder Morgan has also opted for a DTMF control access. Control requests can be handled via hand-held or on-board VHF radios by using the DTMF keypad. This allows authorized personnel to remotely request switch machine movement or train routing from wherever they are in the yard if the need arises.

To achieve DTMF control, Tracsis installs a proprietary DTMF translator which is co-located with the Tracsis central communications controller. The DTMF translator listens to incoming VHF/UHF requests coming from the field and translates them to Tracsis protocol. The DOC System manages all DTMF requests and verifies that no conflicts exist in the field.