WASHINGTON — Building on the environmental benefits of rail travel, Amtrak has released its Fiscal 2021 Sustainability Report, outlining its efforts to improve sustainability by addressing greenhouse gas emissions and use of diesel fuel and electricity.
Those efforts include the introduction of new Siemens Charger locomotives on long-distance routes, Tier-4-compliant units that emit 89% less nitrogen oxide and 95% less particulate matter than current details, as well as plans to purchase new, more efficient equipment — including some dual-mode equipment — for Northeast Corridor and state-supported services.
Also included are plans to increase capacity, reliability, and performance on the Northeast Corridor, taking cars off the road and reducing carbon emssions, and introduction of solar-powered gates on the corridor to increase security prior to the launch of the new Acela service, now expected sometime in 2023.
The company also touts its Connects US plan as an effort to expand energy-efficient passenger service to underserved area, saying that plan’s corridor-focused approach will better reflect population growth, demographic shifts, and other changes since the Amtrak network was established.
“Driving sustainability at Amtrak means transforming the customer experience, reducing our carbon footprint and expanding service to new markets across America,” CEO Stephen Gardner said in a press release. “Recognizing the urgency to act now, Amtrak is out to change the way our country moves.”
More information, including a link to the report, is available at the Sustainability page on the Amtrak website.
How much nitrogen oxide and particulate matter do current details release?
As usual it looks like Amtrak is only interested in operating shorter routes. They forget they are helping reduce the use of auto travel and related carbon emissions on many long distance trains. They serve many smaller rural towns where the train is the only alternative to driving a car. It’s time for them to revaluate the ridership on their long distance trains and make sure there are enough coach seats to serve the many intermediate stops on a long distance train. They may also want to seriously investigate the benefits of adding a second train on the route to better serve some of the stops that only are served late at night which would add revenue to many long distance trains. Ridership from the start of a route to the end does not need to be high to make a train economically justified to run. Just look at their northeast trains. These trains operating from Boston to Washington DC serve many cities that generate much traffic over part of the route not ridding the complete run.
John … My first reaction to your post is that it’s all so so so so obvious, we all know everything you wrote and we’ve known it for decades.
Then I had a second thought: Your post might be obvious to everyone except Amtrak but it’s not something Amtrak has figured out. So keep posting, John. Maybe Stepehn G. will read it and learn something.
And, how many pieces of this new equipment are really running on AMTRAK. Seems to me that there have been oodles of problems with both the cars and the locomotives.
as usual Gardner talks out of both sides of his mouth.
No one listens to the stuff coming out either side.
So far most of the emission reductions have come from cancelling trains (anyone remember the Meteor??), but not certain what this has to do with “sustainability”.
Stephen Cardner