HisWay Labs' TrackView sends micro electric pulses into the rail to watch roughly 2 km of track for breaks, so operators get earlier warning of a broken rail before it causes a derailment.
TrackView, built by HisWay Labs in Somerset West, watches the rail for breaks. A solar-powered unit beside the track sends micro electric pulses into the rail and reads the response, covering roughly 2 km of track, and it tracks train position around the clock. When the rail breaks, the unit locates the break to within 50 metres and raises an alarm in under three minutes.
For operators, that means earlier warning of broken rails before they cause derailments, fewer service disruptions and less unscheduled downtime.
The value reaches well beyond the track. Rail is the backbone of South Africa’s mining, agriculture and manufacturing supply chains, and years of damage and undetected track failures have pushed freight onto the roads, driven up costs and eroded confidence in the network. A railway that runs safely and reliably is a surer way to get minerals to port, produce to market and commuters to work. The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry sees getting freight back onto rail as one of the most direct ways to lower transport costs.
What it can do is help restore an essential element of railway safety and operational visibility. That matters enormously.
Nils Flaatten, strategic affairs and governance adviser at Blue Viking, on TrackView, speaking to the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
TrackView is also designed to be easy to keep in service. It needs no trackside power or fibre and works on signalled, unsignalled and remote lines. It installs in less than an hour between train movements, can be replaced in under 10 minutes, and ongoing maintenance needs no technical expertise. It is built for heat, dust, flooding and tampering, and with no copper cabling and no batteries it holds little of value to thieves.
The need is not only South African. Rail operators worldwide are moving from legacy track circuits to axle counters, a shift that improves train detection but removes traditional broken-rail monitoring. TrackView works on lines signalled with either. At home, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) has given it formal certification and product type approval.
Franz Struwig, CEO of HisWay Labs, has been talking about TrackView on air: on CapeTalk with John Maytham, on RSG Geldsake met Moneyweb and on Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week. Engineering News and News24 have written about the company.
HisWay Labs showed TrackView at InnoTrans 2026 in Berlin, Hall 10.1, Stand 100, from 22 to 25 September, and is exhibiting at the SARA Rail Conference & Exhibition 2026 at the Sandton Convention Centre from 20 to 23 October.
Listen and read
- Octoco, 18 September 2026: the press release on octoco.ltd
- HisWay Labs on LinkedIn, 18 September 2026: the company’s announcement
- Railways Africa, 25 September 2026: “Octoco Group Backs HisWay Labs and TrackView®” (subscriber article)
- Engineering News, 6 October 2026: “Octoco Group backs SA innovator to take rail monitoring system global”, by Irma Venter
- News24, 17 October 2026: “SA startup builds gadgets that would be ‘worthless’ to steal”, by William Brederode (subscriber article)
- CapeTalk, Afternoon Drive with John Maytham, 19 October 2026: “CT company develops vandal-resistant rail track monitoring system”, interview with Franz Struwig, CEO and co-founder
- RSG Geldsake met Moneyweb, 19 October 2026: “SA-tegnologie maak spoorwegtoerusting ‘waardeloos’ vir diewe”, with Franz Struwig, in Afrikaans
- Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week, News24 podcast, 22 October 2026: “Is SA still eating out? And the rail sensor thieves won’t touch”, featuring Franz Struwig
- Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 22 October 2026: “Cape Chamber welcomes CT company’s freight rail innovation milestone”, with comment from Kent Gibbon, Chief Commercial Officer, HisWay Labs
More about TrackView at trackview.io and on HisWay Labs’ LinkedIn page.
