FRA Certification Helpline: (216) 694-0240

(The Pacific Harbor Line issued the following on July 11.)

LONG BEACH-LOS ANGELES, Calif. — By year-end, Pacific Harbor Line’s locomotive fleet will be replaced by 16 remanufactured diesel-electric units that exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s most stringent “Tier 2” standards to reduce air pollutants. This will make PHL “the most environmentally friendly switching railroad in the nation,” said the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach today at commissioning ceremonies celebrating delivery of PHL’s first four locomotives.

Port, state and city officials including the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach joined with PHL to celebrate the event and congratulate the railroad for transforming its entire locomotive fleet.

MotivePower, Inc., a subsidiary of Wabtec Corporation, is supplying 14 MP20C-3 six-axle and two MP20B-3 four-axle locomotives. All of the units will be equipped with new 2,000-h.p. MTU-Detroit diesel engines, which emit 70 percent less particulate matter and 46 percent less smog-forming nitrogen oxides, while burning 30 percent less fuel.

These are the first units built in the U.S. using MTU-Detroit prime movers. Delivery will be completed by year-end. MotivePower is also equipping the locomotives with state-of-the-art electronic control equipment provided by Q-Tron, another Wabtec subsidiary.

PHL is investing $10 million towards the $23 million project and the ports are contributing $5 million each. Additional funds are coming from California’s Carl Moyer Program, which is administered by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

In remarks presented at the commissioning ceremonies, Peter Gilbertson, CEO of Anacostia & Pacific Company, Inc., said, “We are happy to join in the ports efforts to make a difference and improve air quality for the entire community.”

Pacific Harbor Line is a unit of Anacostia & Pacific Company, Inc. (http://www.anacostia.com/) and began operations in 1988 providing railroad switching services to the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and also dispatching all BNSF Railway and Union Pacific trains within the ports. PHL maintains 60 miles of track owned by the two ports and serves nine on-dock intermodal terminals, plus numerous carload customers.

Since start up, employment on PHL has increased from 34 to approximately 140, according to Andrew Fox, PHL president. The port railroad moves nearly two million containers annually directly from and to the docks. Railroads move about one-half of the international container freight in the Los Angeles region, Fox noted, yet contribute only six percent of the particulate emissions and are three times more fuel efficient than trucks, thus reducing greenhouse gases.

PHL is the first small railroad to join the EPA’s “Smartway” Transport Partnership to promote fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases within the freight industry.

In a further effort to reduce pollution, PHL has been using low-sulfur diesel fuel since 2004.