LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers can easily track Amazon packages to their front door, but big railroad customers can't see the real-time location of shipments of BMW luxury cars, fuel or fertilizer as they crisscross the country. A U.S. coalition of railroad executives and their customers are working to change that.

The project, called RailPulse, comes as the $99-billion U.S. freight railroad industry seeks to bolster volume that has been stagnant for more than a decade and as customers demand better service. It is establishing standards and building a unified railcar GPS tracking system. The effort, which relies on collaboration between partners whose interests do not always converge, promises to improve planning and ultimately service and efficiency, participants said.