Intramotev lands $16.2m federal grant to run autonomous railcars in Missouri

A $16.2 million federal grant will put two autonomous railcars to work on a Missouri short line, in what the Federal Railroad Administration and Intramotev hope becomes the safety template for more than 600 U.S. short line railroads.

The FRA announced this week that it selected the City of Columbia for funding under its Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program. Saint Louis-based Intramotev, which builds autonomous freight railcars, will serve as the technology partner on the project. The cars will run on the Columbia Terminal Railroad, known as COLT.

The hardware is specific: two Intramotev TugVolt autonomous railcars, deployed on COLT's 21.4-mile line between Centralia and Columbia, Missouri. The FRA has approved a test program, and operations advance in phases. They start with remote switching at COLT's Columbia terminal. From there, the scope builds to autonomous freight service across the full mainline and its public crossings.

What does this change for short lines?

The point of the exercise is not the two cars themselves. It's the safety record they generate. The project's stated goal is to produce documentation that the FRA and the more than 600 U.S. short lines can use as a template for adopting autonomous railcars elsewhere.

That matters commercially. Short lines operate on thin margins and often can't justify the cost of a locomotive and crew for low-volume moves. Autonomous cars promise to shift that math. If COLT's data holds up, the template gives other operators a regulator-approved path rather than a bespoke approval fight for each property.

Tim Luchini, Intramotev's CEO, framed the economics directly. "Short lines keep America's small cities and rural communities connected to the freight network. Autonomous railcars can help them serve more customers, more often, at lower cost, and this program will show what that looks like on a working mainline," he said.

Luchini added: "We're proud to partner with the City of Columbia and COLT, and grateful to FRA for its support of this important milestone for the rail industry."

Why the phasing matters

The phased structure is the mechanism worth watching. Remote switching inside a fenced terminal is a low-risk first step — slow speeds, controlled environment, no public interactions. Autonomous service across a mainline with public crossings is a different regulatory question entirely. That second phase is where the safety case gets built, and where a failure would set the broader adoption timeline back.

For shippers on short lines, the near-term impact is nil. Two cars on 21.4 miles of Missouri track move little freight. The medium-term impact could be meaningful: a validated FRA test program lowers the barrier for other short lines to follow, and autonomous switching alone could cut terminal dwell and crew costs at properties that currently can't afford frequent service.

The project also lands at a moment when Washington is leaning into rail investment. The FRA announced the Columbia award as part of its CRISI program, the department's main vehicle for funding freight rail safety and infrastructure projects, and the agency's framing of a coming "golden age of rail" signals appetite for exactly this kind of deployment pilot.

Intramotev said the partnership takes effect this week. Watch the phase-one switching results at COLT's Columbia terminal first; the pace at which the FRA lets those cars onto the mainline and its public crossings will tell you how fast autonomous railcar adoption spreads beyond Missouri.