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Short Line Data Systems ROCS Update – May 2006
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings –
We have all recovered from the ASLRRA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, and have started to follow up on the discussions that took place there, as well as have added a couple of new members to the SDS family. We are preparing to deploy PET ROCS at the Maine Eastern later this month, and set up ROCSDispatch at the Finger Lakes shortly thereafter. Development of all of our products continues, with new features being added in the last few weeks. With all of the above to discuss, let’s get going.
(Note to those who are receiving this update for the first time: We send this update out each month to update interested parties in the products produced by SDS, and make announcements of new customers, products, and issues of concern to the Short Line Industry.)
ASLRRA Annual Meeting
Wow! What else can be said? The staff of the ASLRRA need to be complimented on putting on a first rate conference in Orlando (yes, I was on the planning committee for the conference, and we played a significant role in the topics presented, but the staff truly put all of the parts together and executed them). The exhibition hall was sold out, with companies representing all varieties of goods and services available to the industry, and the educational program covered all sorts of topics of current interest to the attendees. I heard more than one person say “there were so many good choices, it was hard to make one choice.” With comments like that, we can only look forward to next year’s conference, which will take place in Baltimore April 22-24, 2007.
Railway Age Column
As many of you have seen, the April 2006 Short Line/Regional Perspective column in Railway Age was written by yours truly. It was my privilege to be invited to author the column for the second time (the first was the October 2004 issue), and the column discusses the need for an lower cost AEI reading solution to improve the visibility of traffic on Class 2 and 3 railroads. If you haven’t seen the column yet, and would like a copy of it, please drop us a line and we’ll send you a copy.
New Customers
The list of ROCSDispatch customers keeps growing. We are proud to announce the addition of the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad and the Farmrail System to the SDS Family. Both railroads will be using the GCOR version of ROCSDispatch, and we look forward to installing both systems in the next month or so.
ROCS Version 10
We have added some new features to V10 of the classic ROCS system. First, Train10 Type 70 messages have been coded, and are available if needed. These messages are used for ISA compliance, and are similar to a Train01 type of interchange message. A couple of tweaks have been made to the car hire data exchange messages, mostly in the data formatting, eliminating some manual data entry that was necessary.
PET ROCS
We are preparing to deploy PET ROCS at the Maine Eastern in a couple of weeks, and have been adding new features on a daily basis. The largest set of features concern group sales. These allow the user to book and manage groups of any size, compute discounted fares, record catering needs, and have reports for both your train crews and catering staff. We have also added features to compute passenger mileage for FRA reporting, and keep track of car mileage for maintenance purposes. When we put the system to use “under fire,” I am sure that we will be adding a couple of new items that we have not thought of yet.
Well, that is about all for now. I would be remiss in closing this update without commenting on the Railinc withdrawal from the Short Line EDI provider market. First of all, this situation will not affect our users, as Railinc will be continuing their data products, which are an integral part of the ROCS system. As for the current Rail Synch users that will be on the market for a replacement for their current system, we are here and will do everything possible to make the transition as painless as possible, and I know that the Railinc personnel will do the same. Our commitment to the industry has never been stronger, and we will be following up on that commitment with constant updates to our current products, fair prices, and new products that are focused on short lines. It is a very exciting time to be a railroader, and we will continue to do what we can to help the industry.
Stay safe,
Steven Friedland President |
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