(The following article by Stacie Hamel appeared on the Omaha World-Herald website on February 23. S.J. Caruso is a member of BLET Division 183 in Omaha, Neb.)
OMAHA — Sam Caruso tries to save fuel by coasting to stops, avoiding jack-rabbit starts and planning his route.
The amount of fuel Caruso saves through such methods would make the average motorist sputter. Caruso isn’t driving just any vehicle, though.
He operates a locomotive that can burn through 3.5 gallons of diesel fuel per minute.
When Caruso saves a lot of fuel, his employer rewards his effort with a $100 fuel card.
“The program makes me more conscious of how I operate the train,” said Caruso, a 27-year Union Pacific Railroad employee who runs trains between Missouri Valley, Iowa, and North Platte, Neb.
At an event attended by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, U.P. announced Wednesday that its Fuel Masters program soon will be in place throughout its 23-state system.
Mineta praised the program as an important step toward reaching President Bush’s goal of reducing oil imports by more than 75 percent by 2025.
“Quitting oil does not mean America quits moving,” Mineta said. With programs like Union Pacific’s, “we’re moving closer to an America free of dependence on foreign oil.”
Mineta had a firsthand lesson in how engineers are trying to conserve fuel. He rode on a locomotive from west Omaha to downtown’s Durham Western Heritage Museum.
U.P. President and Chief Executive Jim Young said the program began at the suggestion of engineers.
It compares locomotive engineers’ fuel consumption performance against others in the same territory. Engineers in the top 15 percent to 20 percent of each territory where Union Pacific operates are awarded fuel cards each month.
U.P. said the program saved more than 16 million gallons of diesel and $30 million in 2005. Those savings are expected to double once the program is in place systemwide.
Caruso said the program includes training, informational materials and experience using a train simulator adapted to track fuel consumption.
Operating a locomotive more efficiently costs only a small amount of time, he said. “It might take an extra minute, but the fuel you’d be saving more than outweighs the time.”
Mineta called the U.P. program the first in the rail industry.
Similar conservation efforts by BNSF Railway Co. do not offer financial incentives, said BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg, but have been in place for several years.
Caruso said the incentive isn’t why he now wants to operate a locomotive as efficiently as he can.
“I can see that our fossil fuels are in danger. Prices are going up, and supplies are going down,” he said. “It’s important to conserve.”