By Chip Pickering, CEO of INCOMPAS
At a recent Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing on Surface Transportation, Freight, Pipelines, and Safety, Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies made a point that should resonate far beyond the rail industry: technology is transforming the systems that move America.
Mr. Jefferies described how freight railroads are using AI-assisted inspections, machine vision, predictive analytics, advanced sensors, and real-time data to identify risks earlier, improve safety, and strengthen service across a 140,000-mile network. These technologies are helping railroads detect defects, monitor track conditions, improve maintenance planning, and enhance the reliability of one of the most important transportation networks in the world.
He is right. Innovation is modernizing critical parts of our economy, and rail is a powerful example. But there is another essential piece of this story. None of this works without robust broadband connectivity.
AI-enabled inspections, sensor networks, real-time monitoring, cloud-based analytics, and predictive maintenance all depend on secure, reliable, high-capacity communications networks. The modern rail system is no longer just steel, signals, and locomotives. It is also data, connectivity, automation, and intelligence. Broadband infrastructure is now part of the operating foundation of the rail network, just as it is for energy, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and emergency response.
That is why Congress should support policies that provide certainty for broadband deployment and prevent unnecessary delays. The same innovation that is making rail safer and more efficient depends on the timely construction and maintenance of modern communications networks along rail corridors and across the country.
The Broadband and Telecommunications RAIL Act is important for exactly this reason. It is not about picking winners or losers. It is about ensuring that critical broadband infrastructure can be built quickly and responsibly, while preserving essential safety standards and operational coordination with railroads. The legislation establishes clear timelines, reasonable compensation standards, and resolution mechanisms that will eliminate the delays and excessive fees that have long made deployments uneconomical.
Railroads and broadband providers both operate infrastructure that is essential to the modern economy. Rail moves goods across the country. Broadband moves the data that powers commerce, safety, logistics, and innovation. Increasingly, these systems are interdependent. When broadband deployment is delayed, the technologies that railroads and other critical industries rely on are delayed as well.
As Mr. Jefferies emphasized, policymakers should allow innovation to lead and should avoid outdated frameworks that slow progress. That principle applies not only to rail technology, but also to the broadband networks that make modern rail technology possible.
America’s economic competitiveness depends on the ability to build next-generation infrastructure with certainty, speed, and safety. If we want railroads, energy systems, supply chains, and other critical sectors to harness AI and advanced technologies, then we must ensure the broadband networks supporting them can be deployed without needless barriers.
Technology is helping railroads become safer, smarter, and more efficient. Broadband is what connects that technology to the real world. Congress should recognize that connection and advance policies, including the Broadband and Telecommunications RAIL Act, that help build the infrastructure America needs for the next century of innovation.
