For freight mode shifting and electrification

This week Backbone Campaign Executive Director Bill Moyer will testify before the Surface Transportation Board, the federal body charged with regulating railroads, on ways they can return to serving their traditional public interest responsibilities. The following provides greater detail on actions called for in Bill’s testimony, as well as other actions Backbone’s Solutionary Rail campaign advocates.

Evaluate trucks vs. rail for freight

Shifting freight from trucks to rail is essential. Diesel locomotives reduce energy use (along with the air pollution from trucking) by three to five times, compared to trucking, as well as air and water particulate pollution from tire and brake wear. To evaluate potentials for freight mode shifting, Solutionary Rail (SR) has delved into research tools such as the Freight Analysis Framework created by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Texas Transportation Institute congestion studies. But our team became frustrated by those tools’ difficulty of use and the important information that seems just a couple calculations away, but is still unreachable.

To help resolve these questions, Solutionary Rail joined the the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Freight Rail Transportation Committee, a multidisciplinary group from academia, government, and industry that advises on research to improve the industry in the U.S. SR identified the need for a study and calculator tool to determine the external costs of freight by various modes, calculating impacts on emissions; highway wear and tear; accidents, deaths and injuries; and congestion. We offered this Research Needs Statement and developed this mock up External Cost Calculator to compare the impacts of truck and rail freight.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to move this forward in the TRB. We sense there is rail industry resistance to revealing how important mode shift is to the public interest. The American Association of Railroads (AAR), along with primary rail carriers, make much of mode shift in their public relations strategies. At the same time they are actively shedding less profitable freight business lines, while avoiding traditional common carrier responsibilities that would oblige the companies to resume such service. A national mode-shift-to-rail policy, as exists in the EU, would be a likely outcome of an external cost of freight study. Federal research agencies should develop this study and these tools.

Promote rail yard electrification

Because rail yards concentrate train traffic and tend to be located in areas where populations are low-income and communities of color, electrification of the yards is an environmental justice priority.

Communities around rail yards face elevated cancer risks, as this map based on data from the California Air Resources Board shows.

Environmental justice is a key concern. Pollution from transportation facilities tends to disproportionately affect people of color and lower-income communities. Our participation in the Moving Forward Network, a group dedicated to resolving these issues, has deeply informed our sense of sequencing and priorities for transportation decarbonization. Taking environmental justice into consideration, it is clear that the top priority for electrification should go first to rail yards - where train traffic is concentrated - in order to stop harming neighboring communities with diesel pollution. Ultimately, electrification of all primary lines will be needed to fully realize this goal.

To prioritize rail yard electrification, we need to quantify the challenge. That begins with an inventory of switcher locomotives, the ones used in rail yards to move cars around, and the extent that line haul locomotives are used for switching. This will help us understand current impacts and what would be needed to end those impacts.

Then we need to compare optional pathways for rail yard electrification, comparing use of overhead catenary wires versus battery locomotives, as well as hybrid strategies using both. Under a combined strategy, it would not be necessary to electrify all the switching tracks, but just a couple of key lines. These could be supplemented with battery switchers, rather than relying on them completely. The other option - to only use battery switcher locomotives - would likely be more expensive and take longer to implement. Research by federal agencies can identify optimal pathways.

The Washington Legislature has approved $5 million for Tacoma Rail, a public-owned short line, to purchase two battery electric switchers. With assistance from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to cover the full $13 million cost, they are expected to be available in 2025. Testing will still be required. And that will leave 12 diesel switchers still operating.

To speed up the process, we need bolder action from the federal government to encourage both manufacturing and the deployment of electric locomotives in rail yards. Solutionary Rail recommends creating programs for ports and state transportation departments to acquire and lease battery- and catenary-powered switchers to the rail yard operators. Plug-in charging and/or catenary for running or charging switchers will also be necessary.

Update cost estimates for rail line electrification

Rail electrification eliminates trackside air pollution, and when powered by renewable energy, supplies zero-emissions transportation, vital for meeting climate goals. While rail electrification is expanding around the world, almost no U.S. lines are electrified. High cost estimates such as this $4.8-million-per-mile price tag are used by U.S. opponents of electrification. But electrification of a 33-kilometer line in Belgium completed in 2021 came in at $1.8 million per mile. We have learned from informed sources that much of the high per-mile cost estimates is the result of including raising overpasses, crowning tunnels, and rebuilding bridges to accommodate overhead wires.

With the emergence of battery technology and potential for distributed electrification, it is time to reevaluate the actual cost of rail line electrification.  Discontinuous electrification combines overhead catenary wires with battery electric locomotives, using those wires to recharge batteries. So sections that would be more costly to electrify can instead be served by batteries. Gradual electrification has never been more possible than it is today; this needs to be factored in when evaluating current electrification costs. Developing these estimates is a task for federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy and FRA.

Study rail corridors for energy transmission

One of the most critical climate priorities is to replace electricity generated by coal and gas with sun and wind. But these clean resources tend to be concentrated in regions far from metropolitan demand centers. Currently, the greatest obstacle to creating a fully decarbonized grid is lack of long-distance transmission capacity. Thousands of megawatts of proposed renewable energy projects are stalled, queued in line waiting for transmission access. Solutionary Rail has proposed use of rail corridors to create a continental SuperGrid of High Voltage DC lines. Using corridors in traditional industrial use under single owners is a far more rapid way to expand transmission than assembling many parcels under different owners, often facing local opposition.

But railroads are slow to adopt new business lines, and are unlikely to initiate the needed studies. We need to start treating the climate emergency as an actual emergency.  The public needs a strategy for advancing this most crucial of public interests. The U.S. Department of Energy, working with FRA, should develop a pathway to the SuperGrid based on the primary rail network and examine how this can be developed in conjunction with rail electrification. Understanding the cost of not having an integrated grid, and the value of getting one sooner rather than later, may shake loose resources proportionate to the challenge. If the public takes the lead and sets out the pathway, it might also engage the railroads in what will be a large new business opportunity.

Join the Solutionary Rail team

We invite you to be part of this people-powered campaign to put American railroads in service of the public interest through rail electrification, shifting freight and people from roads to rail, and using rail corridors to transmit renewable energy. Participate in webinars, strategy sessions and skill sharing with community and technical experts by signing up at SolutionaryRail.org. Support this work with a tax-deductible donation here. To buy our book, Solutionary Rail - A people-powered campaign to electrify America's railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future, click here.