July 15, 2025 - TRA Newswire -
Dallas-based Railspire, a company that retrofits locomotives for autonomous driving, recently announced it raised an additional $4.6 million in funding. The new investment tops-off and closes Railspire’s fourth funding round, announced in August of last year, at a total of $12.5 million USD.
Most investors in this latest round were current or former railroad industry executives. Railspire has raised more than $24 million USD since 2020.
The company has agreements with two shortline holding companies, including one of the largest in the U.S., and with two California shortline railroads.
Founded in 2020 by three railroading experts, including two who are autonomous rail technologists, the company aims to use AI locomotive driving technology to help railroads operate with better safety, efficiency and productivity.
“As issues such as rail safety, a protracted labor shortage, and the need for cost control increase in prominence, the industry needs innovative approaches like Railspire’s,” said said Lester Hightower, co-founder and board chairman of Railspire.. “It is an exciting time to be offering game-changing innovations to such a storied and vital industry.”
One of Railspire's customers chose Dallas as its initial deployment location, due to its central location and ease of air travel, to enable efficient demonstrations of its artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to team members across its entire enterprise.
Photo credit: Railspire