Columbia's city-owned short line is about to get a very different kind of rolling stock. Two autonomous, battery-electric railcars built by St. Louis-based Intramotev are headed for the Columbia Terminal Railroad, known locally as COLT, after the Federal Railroad Administration awarded the city a $16.2 million grant to modernize the 21.4-mile line between Columbia and Centralia.
Intramotev will serve as the technology partner on the project, according to DC Velocity, which reported that the company will deploy two of its TugVolt autonomous railcars on COLT's line connecting Centralia and Columbia. The FRA announced it had selected the City of Columbia for the funding under its Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program, the outlet reported. As first detailed by Robotics & Automation News, Intramotev is a technology company that builds autonomous freight railcars, and company CEO Tim Luchini said the vehicles can help short lines serve more customers, more often, at lower cost.
The grant itself was formally awarded October 15, totaling $16,207,000, according to KRCG. The station reported the full COLT Railroad Modernization Program carries a total price tag of $20,827,000, with the remaining $4,620,000 coming from non-federal contributions. That money funds not just the railcars but track and infrastructure upgrades, including the installation of 36,000 composite rail ties, tamping work across roughly six miles of track, the replacement of three turnout switches, and construction of two Level 2 terminal charging units, per the station's reporting.
How the Rollout Is Expected to Unfold
Rather than flipping a switch and sending driverless trains barreling down the mainline, the project calls for a phased approach that requires FRA sign-off at each stage. Operations will advance in phases under an FRA-approved test program, beginning with remote switching at COLT's Columbia terminal and potentially building toward autonomous freight service across the full mainline and its public crossings, according to the same DC Velocity report. The equipment can be operated remotely using a tablet, which, per KOMU, could give the railroad's small staff more flexibility.
Both TugVolt units will be built at Intramotev's St. Louis facility, according to FreightWaves, which described TugVolt as a battery-electric railcar capable of moving itself without a locomotive. The same outlet reported that COLT handles roughly 600 carloads a year, carrying freight that includes metal products, chemicals, lumber and sheetrock, and that the businesses depending on the railroad support hundreds of local jobs, according to Columbia Utilities Director Erin Keys. Keys has said the federal investment will modernize the railroad, strengthen customer service and position Columbia at the forefront of rail innovation.
Why Columbia's Short Line Matters Beyond City Limits
COLT is a municipally owned short line operated by Columbia's city utilities department, and it has served as the city's link to the national rail network for nearly 40 years. The corridor generates $670 million in total sales and supports 243 jobs, according to the project description cited by KRCG. Freight volumes dropped sharply after the city's Water & Light power plant switched from coal to natural gas in 2015, pushing carloadings to under 1,000 per year, according to the COMO Business Times.
The stakes extend past mid-Missouri. The project's stated goal is to produce a safety record that the FRA and the more than 600 short lines operating across the country can use as a template for adopting autonomous railcars, per DC Velocity's reporting. Intramotev's Missouri test program is described by Trains as only the second such testing effort for an autonomous railcar company, following Parallel Systems, which the FRA approved to test autonomous, self-propelled flatcars on Georgia Central Railway and Heart of Georgia Railroad lines, according to a separate FreightWaves report. That Georgia pilot was structured as a seven-phase test program, with each phase requiring FRA approval before moving to the next, the same report noted.
A Growing Footprint for Autonomous Railcars
Columbia is not Intramotev's only project. The company announced a commercial agreement in April to put TugVolt vehicles to work on industrial shunting operations along R.J. Corman Railroad Company's Memphis Line, according to Railway Gazette International. As of that same month, the publication reported Intramotev also had active TugVolt deployments with limestone quarrying company Carmeuse Americas in Michigan and with short line group Watco in Illinois.
No timetable for when construction or testing will actually begin on the COLT line has been established in available reporting. For now, Columbia's short line stands as the latest proving ground for a technology that its backers hope could reshape how hundreds of small freight railroads across the country move cargo.
