Dramatically more powerful': world's first battery-electric freight train unveiled
Wabtec shows off locomotive amid fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transport.
The world’s first battery-electric freight train was unveiled at an event in Pittsburgh on Friday, amid a fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transport in order to address the climate crisis.
Wabtec, the Pittsburgh-based rail freight company, showed off its locomotive at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a new venture between the two organizations to develop zero emissions technology to help move the 1.7bn tons of goods that are shipped on American railroads each year.
Perched upon a strip of rail at Carnegie Mellon’s technology campus on the banks of the Monongahela River, the cherry red, 75ft-long train provided a striking background to politicians, rail executives and academics who urged a swifter industry transition away from fossil fuels. Dignitaries were allowed to clamber up a vertiginous ladder on to the train to inspect its confines, which included a small driver’s cabin in front of 500 lithium-ion battery modules, arrayed in stacks in the heart of the vehicle.
The new train, known as the FLXdrive battery-electric locomotive, underwent successful trials in California earlier this year where it was found to have cut fuel consumption by 11%, which meant reducing the amount of diesel used by 6,200 gallons. Wabtec said that the next iteration of the locomotive, to be rolled out within two years, will be able to cut the consumption of diesel, the fossil fuel traditionally used in freight rail, by nearly a third.
The company also said emissions will be entirely eliminated through the development of accompanying hydrogen fuel cells. If the technology is used worldwide, Wabtec estimates planet-heating emissions could be cut by 300m tons a year, with nearly half of those saved emissions occurring in the US. . .
The unveiling of the locomotive was used by two attending Democrats to renew their calls for $600m in the planned Congressional reconciliation bill to be dedicated to a new freight rail innovation institute that would provide the research and development to cut emissions from the sector. The lawmakers, and Wabtec, consider battery-powered trains more practical and cheaper than electrifying all of America’s rail network.
“We are trying really hard to get it into the bigger bill,” Senator Bob Casey told the Guardian. Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has introduced to the Senate a $600m proposal for the institute, with an identical bill in the House of Representatives written by Conor Lamb, another Democrat whose district includes part of Pittsburgh. “We are in a race against irreversible climate change and rail is part of the strategy to cut emissions,” Casey said. s from the sector. The lawmakers, and Wabtec, consider battery-powered trains more practical and cheaper than electrifying all of America’s rail network.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/16/battery-electric-freight-train-wabtec-rail-transport-emissions?
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