Data & Technical Resources

The Railway Supply Institute publishes, compiles, and maintains information on a variety of topics for RSI members, rail industry professionals, and government officials. These topics include the economic impact of the industry, the latest tank car standards, statistics on freight railcar orders, backlog, and deliveries, and more.

Rail Supply Economic Impact Study

Tracking the Power of Rail Supply: The Economic Impact of Rail Suppliers in the U.S. is a major new study that quantifies the economic and workforce impact of the products and services produced by the railway supply industry in the U.S. The Railway Supply Institute (RSI), partnering with the Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA), Railway Systems Suppliers, Inc. (RSSI) and Railway Tie Association (RTA) commissioned Oxford Economics to develop the report. It highlights the importance of the industry to the U.S. economy in terms of jobs, tax revenue, and gross domestic product (GDP) on both the state and national level.

Tank Car Resource Center

The RSI Committee on Tank Cars maintains a robust educational website for regulators, press, government officials, and members of the public to learn more about tank cars, including extensive data covering safety, technical improvements, and more. This site covers everything from an 101 introduction to tank cars to detailed information on FAST Act standards and timelines.

Freight Car Statistics

Each financial quarter, the RSI American Railway Car Institute Committee (ARCI) prepares and distributes statistics on North American freight car orders, deliveries, and backlogs to its affiliate members. The RSI ARCI is the only organization that tabulates and publishes freight car statistics which are proprietary and only available to ARCI affiliate members. RSI also maintains annual data on orders and deliveries going back to 1965.

RSI-100 Standard

The RSI-100 standard is a global guideline that allows railway suppliers to produce certain critical tank car components without having Association of American Railroads (AAR) quality certification. The Railway Supply Institute developed the Standard RSI-100 Product Quality Certification to to provide suppliers with confidence that products acquired for installation on tank car tanks conform to the specified quality requirement. This standard was developed in coordination with the Association of American Railroads and by many of the industry’s leading tank car builders, owners, and suppliers.