CALGARY, Alberta — CPKC this week published its 2025 Climate Milestones report, highlighting efforts such as the railroad’s hydrogen locomotive initiative and a biofuel testing program.
“Shipping by rail is the most fuel-efficient way to move goods over land and our Climate Mileposts report outlines the steps we are taking to further advance the potential for future decarbonization of the CPKC locomotive fleet,” CEO Keith Creel said in a press release. “We are committed to working towards continuously improving our locomotive operating efficiency and advancing real-world testing of hydrogen locomotives.”
The railroad’s first hydrogen locomotives underwent more than 6,000 miles of testing in 2024. Three more of the hydrogen units, as well as a tender car, are expected to join the the railroad fleet in the early part of 2025, with another four planned later in the year.
CPKC says it also “conducted more than 1,100 fueling events” using B20 biofuel — in which biodiesel provides 20% of the fuel blend — in British Columbia during 2024. This is part of an effort across the industry to assess the use of biofuels. It also points to expected delivery this year of 100 new Tier 4 locomotives , which will reduce pollution and enhance fuel economy.
The full 16-page report is available here.
I would be interested to see how these units fare in the real world compared to what the H2 units saw in Germany. They both have sourced their fuel cells from Ballard, and while the details are different, the assembly of the needed power is roughly the same.
Complaints of reliability, down on power and lack of stable H2 supply were made in the EU. Let’s see how CPKC and CSX do.
Ask the wrong question you get the wrong answer. Take EV’s. The discussion centers around the quality of the car (such as range on a charge, or the charging time). It’s a given in the discussion that an EV is better for the enviroment, to the point that in many jurisdictions they are actually required.
When I tell my neighbor that her EV is, in my opinion, WORSE for the environment in a number of ways over the life cycle, she doesn’t even listen. I may be right or she may be right, but the point is, the discussion is closed and the anti-EV pro ICE brigade (me, my wife, to name two) is excluded from the debate.
And so it is with alternatives to diesels. Everyone assumes these are cleaner. Are they?
Depends on how the H2 was derived will determine how clean it is.
Regardless of the result, I think it is a needed test to get a baseline of what this ecosystem can support.
The EU operation found issues, not only technically in the motive power, but also in the H2 supply chain. I want to hear what the operational results are for this one. It won’t matter how clean it is or isn’t if it cant be run reliably.
I think it is worthwhile to do extended testing of biofuel and hydrogen before making serious plans for production. As an example, internal combustion engines were used experimentally for a bit over 15 years before they were used in production railcars and it was another 30 years before ICE’s became common in locomotive use.
Seems like they’ve been talking about this forever. Are we going to see some actual real life production out of these. When that happens, if it does I would like some numbers published on the costs and effectiveness of this venture.