(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on the Journal of Commerce website on June 9, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Norfolk Southern Railway executive said his company is exploring the potential to eventually electrify some freight rail lines in connection with passenger rail corridors, but the chief executive of Union Pacific Railroad said he is not considering freight electrification.
Earlier this year, BNSF Railway’s chairman, president and CEO, Matthew K. Rose, said he was in talks with transmission line companies that want to install new power lines in the railroad’s right of way. And he said BNSF was exploring whether that could help the railroad convert large parts of its sprawling western network to electricity.
Industry sources indicated other large carriers were looking at the same options, as Congress and the Obama administration push to upgrade the capacity of the U.S. electricity grid and tie in more alternative power sources including wind energy farms. (See Special Report: Electrifying Freight Rail)
Some observers also say the Obama administration’s push to jumpstart high-speed passenger rail lanes could push freight lines to electrify some of their trains, since true high-speed trains run on electricity and their most likely corridors might be in lanes now owned by freight railroads.
In an interview outside the North American Rail Shippers Association annual meeting in Chicago, NS Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Donald W. Seale said “we’re having some discussion and review” about the potential to at some point electrify some track and trains.
“We at NS don’t see rail electrification in the near term” for freight, Seale said, but he added that could start in connection with passenger rail corridor development. Norfolk Southern’s territory covers the Southeast, Midwest and many parts of the Northeast.
James R. Young, the chairman, president and CEO of UP, said “we are seeing an increase in the number of inquiries from (transmission line) companies that are interested in our right of way.”
But, “we haven’t extended it as far as saying would we do anything with electrification,” he said. “Right now, that is not on my radar screen.” UP is the western rival to BNSF; both have networks that range across the West and into the Midwest.
Seale said power lines would not be the driver at NS for any potential electrified freight trains.
And while he emphasized that freight rail electrification is “not something that is in our short-term view,” Seale also said NS has been exploring those possibilities with locomotive equipment makers. He said those talks were part of an “investigative review,” and not equipment-development talks.
BNSF’s Rose earlier said his team was also in discussions with the continent’s two builders of large freight locomotives about what kind of equipment it would take to pull electric freight trains in North America, which has the heaviest locomotive load requirements in the world.
Rose wants to see if they could make dual-mode power units to run on electricity over part of the BNSF network that might initially be electrified, and then run under traditional diesel power in the rest of the network.
BNSF’s thinking was that it could both operate long-haul electric trains and electrify some specialty yards in which the railroad would recruit shippers with factories that have high needs for electrical power. BNSF, with its transmission lines, might then feed them power as well as handle their rail freight.
UP’s Young said his company was so far not in serious talks with transmission lines about their using UP track corridors. “We have not been a strong proponent of putting high-voltage transmission lines in our railroad right of way,” he said. “I mean, we’re in the business to move freight, and those don’t necessarily mix, but in certain areas they could. All I’ve said is we’re willing to listen.”
As for tapping electricity for rail needs, he said “within a yard (electrification) certainly would be possible,” but over-the-road train moves would be another matter and “we are not looking at that.”
However, Young said, “there may be some math down the road, when you start looking at carbon footprints, and the cost of cap and trade, that could force you to take a look at it.”
Congress is considering legislation to cap carbon emissions, and allow companies to buy and sell carbon permits based on how much carbon they generate or whether they help offset the emissions.
Rose has also said any future carbon restrictions affecting railroads could help make electric trains financially viable, compared with justifying today the high costs of converting their networks and locomotive fleets.