(The following article by Gregory Richards was posted on the Virginian Pilot website on July 11.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Record fuel prices are bringing an increased emphasis on fuel conservation to railroads, including Norfolk Southern Corp.
After all, when you operate locomotives with diesel fuel tanks holding up to 5,000 gallons and engines consuming up to 190 gallons per hour, fuel costs can quickly get prohibitive. Norfolk Southern’s 2005 fuel bill was $875 million, up 47 percent from the previous year, although only 2 percent more fuel was consumed, according to the Norfolk-based company.
It is trying to reduce such fuel costs through technology and smarter operation of its trains by the engineers who drive them.
Several steps being stressed shouldn’t be foreign to those driving on roads.
“Some of those same basic principles you apply to driving an automobile – avoid jack-rabbit starts and hard stops – some of those same principles apply on a grander scale when driving a train,” said Bill Faulhaber, training manager at Norfolk Southern’s McDonough, Ga., engineer training facility.
Faulhaber said that, like with cars, starts and stopping is where most fuel consumption occurs with trains. The goal is to slowly increase the train’s speed when starting off.
It’s best to stop by using the locomotive’s “dynamic” braking system – the equivalent of downshifting in a car, Faulhaber said. Dynamic braking utilizes the electric motors – powered by diesel generators – that turn the locomotive’s wheels. If the regular air brakes strung throughout the rail cars are used, the spacing between the cars can change, possibly causing an accident. To prevent that, the locomotive might have to pull the train even while braking, which consumes additional fuel.
Geography plays a role as well. For example, if a train is approaching a downhill, the engineer should reduce the locomotive’s throttle to let gravity move the train, Faulhaber said.
Fuel efficiency has been a priority when training engineers for some time, Faulhaber said, but it’s become more of a priority in recent years with the rise in fuel prices.
That drive is occurring even though trains are considered to be more fuel efficient at moving cargo than other forms of transportation, such as trucks.
A locomotive can move a ton of cargo an average of 410 miles on 1 gallon of diesel fuel, according to the Association of American Railroads, an industry group.
Still, the railroads devour huge amounts of fuel. Last year, Norfolk Southern consumed 513.4 million gallons of diesel fuel, up from 502.5 million gallons in 2004, according to company figures, an increase of 2.2 percent. The railroad hauled 4.3 percent more freight during that time, reaching 7.8 million carloads in 2005. Norfolk Southern, the country’s fourth largest railroad, operates more than 21,200 miles of track throughout the eastern U nited States and Canada.
Efforts to conserve fuel are common across the country’s freight railroads because of the rapidly increasing diesel bills.
Union Pacific Corp., for instance, operates a program that awards $100 gift cards to engineers who save the most fuel.
The Omaha, Neb.,-based company said that initiative saved 16 million gallons of diesel fuel and $30 million in 2005.
“It’s been a success on several fronts: not only are we saving fuel but it has been a morale builder and booster,” said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis.
Norfolk Southern doesn’t have a similar program for its engineers, Faulhaber said, explaining that saving fuel is part of the engineers’ jobs.
Railroads are also attempting to deal with skyrocketing fuel prices by passing the increases on to their customers through fuel surcharges. About 85 percent of Norfolk Southern’s revenues are covered by surcharges, according to the railroad.
Industrywide, that figure is between 60 and 75 percent, according to Anthony B. Hatch, an independent railroad analyst based in New York.
Hatch called it a “big positive” that railroads have been able to pass fuel increases on to their customers because it reduces the companies’ costs. Trucking companies have been more successful at doing this in the past, but railroads are catching up, he said.
Some companies that ship goods via rail have complained that railroads are overcharging them, using the surcharges to generate profits. The railroads have denied this, saying they are recouping less than the fuel increase.
Another way railroads are attempting to conserve fuel is through technology.
Locomotives are being equipped with systems that automatically shut down the engine if it has been idling for too long, Faulhaber said.
And Norfolk Southern is testing a new system that calculates and displays to the engineer the optimum speed a train should be running at, considering such factors as the train’s length and weight and the topography of the rail line.
That system is being tested on 15 locomotives working on a 100-mile stretch of track between Roanoke and North Carolina, said Scott Keegan, an engineering manager in Norfolk Southern’s research department.
It has produced fuel savings of about 10 percent on those trains, he said.
Up to 60 more locomotives should be equipped with the system starting at the end of the year, Keegan said. The railroad has roughly 3,600 locomotives.
Norfolk Southern is also buying new locomotives that are more fuel efficient. There are 120 locomotives being purchased this year and 420 locomotives are being overhauled, according to the railroad.