Local Innovation & Advanced Railway Technology: How TrackSense is Strengthening the Hudson Bay Railway
The Hudson Bay Railway is a vital link connecting Canada’s North to the world - moving people, goods, and opportunity across rugged, remote terrain. As the climate changes, maintaining and strengthening this lifeline requires innovation.
That’s why Arctic Gateway Group is proud to work with TrackSense. This Manitoba-based company uses an advanced railway inspection platform that brings together drones and AI to monitor track health, analyze footage and data, and coordinate the dispatch of engineering crews to exact locations for inspection and remediation. TrackSense, developed by Winnipeg-based DecisionWorks, enables AGG to analyze vast quantities of drone collected data and get ahead of issues along the Hudson Bay Railway in ways that simply weren’t possible in the past.
Figure 1 – Brett Young, Grant Barkman and Nathan Gullacher after another successful drone inspection flight
Modern Tools
Rail inspection has traditionally been a slow, manual, and sometimes risky process. This is especially true in the far north, where long distances, harsh weather, and permafrost make conditions unpredictable. With Track Sense, AGG can now inspect miles of track in minutes, using drone-mounted cameras and sensors that capture high-resolution images and 3D models of the railway and surrounding terrain, with artificial intelligence used to comb through the data and detect issues.
This data helps our teams:
Assess track structure, including tie condition, surface, and geometry
Identify fire hazards and vegetation risks
Predict water flow, drainage, and culvert clearing needs
Monitor permafrost conditions and ground movement over time
The result? Faster insights, safer inspections, and a more resilient railway.
Figure 2 - Beautiful yet challenging terrain needing innovative technologies to monitor and inspect
A Safer, Smarter Inspection Process
TrackSense’s fully autonomous drone flights mean less time spent on the rails by human inspectors, which increases safety and frees up valuable time for HBR employees. With drone flight missions pre-programmed and repeatable, AGG can monitor precise locations over time, no matter how remote, and prioritize maintenance before problems arise.
More importantly, the digital 3D models created by TrackSense allow multiple engineers, partners, and decision-makers to view and assess the rail corridor from anywhere - just as if they were in the field themselves.
Figure 3 – Bridge inspections with drones is safer and more efficient than traditional methods
A Commitment to Resilience
This partnership is more than a technological upgrade, it’s part of AGG’s broader commitment to modernize the Hudson Bay Railway and deliver real results for the Northern communities and industries that rely on it.
Through innovation, investment, and collaboration with world-class Canadian technology firms and scientific research institutions, we are showing that the Hudson Bay Railway is stronger than ever - and ready for a growing future.
In our next post, we’ll take a closer look at AGG’s partnership with PermaRail, which brings together five leading Canadian universities to help create an even strong future for the Hudson Bay Railway.
About Arctic Gateway Group: The Arctic Gateway Group is a proudly Indigenous and community owned Manitoba company that owns and operates the Port of Churchill, Canada’s only Arctic seaport serviced by rail, as well as the Hudson Bay Railway, which operates from The Pas to Churchill.