Short lines are learning the ‘SmartWay’ to be green
8/2/2021
By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
Twin Cities & Western Railroad (TC&W), a regional railroad operating over 229 miles of track and serving some of the most productive agricultural counties in Minnesota, began tracking its fuel usage on a per-carload basis in the 1990s.
The goal at the time was to help detect inefficiencies and make improvements that would help cut energy costs. But in the early 2010s, the railroad’s leadership concluded they’d get a more accurate grasp of those costs if they measured fuel usage per 1,000 gross ton miles, which takes into account the car loads as well as empties.
About that same time, CSX began airing a television commercial that promoted the fact that a train can move a ton of freight more than 400 miles on one gallon of fuel.
“That CSX message also aligned with how we were looking at it,” recalls TC&W President and Chief Executive Mark Wegner. “So, for the past three years we’ve been able to achieve, on an annual basis, 1,000 gross ton miles on one gallon of fuel, which is double what the industry average is and which is very, very good.”
And at some point, Wegner and TC&W officials understood that operating more efficiently wasn’t just a money saver and good for safety purposes — it also was good for the environment. Since then, TC&W has continued to implement sustainability practices. Among its latest achievements is joining the SmartWay® Transport Partnership, a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the transportation industry, which provides a framework to assess environmental and energy efficiency of goods movement supply chains.
The program was developed jointly and launched in 2004 by EPA and Charter Partners represented by industry stakeholders, environmental groups, American Trucking Associations, and Business for Social Responsibility. SmartWay “partners” on the program's tools and approaches to track and reduce emissions and fuel use from goods movement.
“We always thought that freight rail is inherently more carbon friendly than trucking,” says Wegner. “When we started reading a lot about environmental sustainability and how large companies are looking at their total carbon footprint, we thought, ‘Well, gee, we’re already keeping track of the metrics that EPA wants for SmartWay.’ So when we approached EPA, it was relatively simple [to join] because we already had the data to provide and they turned around and certified us, which was wonderful.”
Other ways TC&W has reduced its diesel emissions include partnering with Minnesota’s Environmental Initiative and the American Lung Association to obtain grant funds that have helped the railroad acquire Hotstart heating equipment for its EMD locomotives. A locomotive heating system designed to eliminate wasteful idling of trains is particularly helpful in Minnesota, where the temperature can get well below zero degrees during winter.
Wegner hopes implementing SmartWay and other sustainability measures will appeal to customers looking to reduce their own footprint by shipping goods via rail. TC&W hauls over $1 billion of customer products through south central Minnesota annually.
“For instance, we serve a cannery in Glencoe, and they rail canned goods to retailers in New York and Pennsylvania,” Wegner says. “Those retailers, when they’re calculating their own footprint can say, ‘We transported these goods from where they were grown in Minnesota to our area using rail,’ which reduces the carbon footprint already. And that’s a nice feather in their cap.”
TC&W is one of the most recent regionals and short lines to join SmartWay, according to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA), which encourages its members to participate in the EPA program and other initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Currently, about a dozen smaller railroads and short line/regional railroad companies have joined SmartWay, according to ASLRRA, which itself became a SmartWay affiliate in 2020. Six of the seven Class Is also are participants.
The Twin Cities & Western also has partnered with Minnesota’s Environmental Initiative and the American Lung Association to obtain grant funds that have helped the railroad acquire Hotstart heating equipment for its EMD locomotives. Credit: Twin Cities & Western Railroad/Steve GlischinskiTelling the green story
Earlier this year, the ASLRRA and EPA hosted a webinar titled “Benefits of Freight Rail: Capacity, Safety and Clean Air” to share information on how short lines can help shippers lower their greenhouse gas emissions. Presenters included Peter Gilbertson, president and CEO of Anacostia Rail Holdings Co., who is vice chair of the ASLRRA’s Environment Committee and also serves on the Association of American Railroads’ (AAR) Greenhouse Gas Committee. (Railroads account for 40% of U.S. freight but only 2.1% of U.S. transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the AAR and EPA.)
The ASLRRA Environment Committee’s mission is to educate short lines about environmental issues of concern to the industry, and share best practices in what works, Gilbertson says.
“There’s some emerging technology out there that has its pros and cons, and we're trying to get best practices on things like fuels,” he says. “We’re also trying to help our members deal with compliance issues, such as stormwater treatment on our facilities and the handling of used oil.”
Environmental sustainability “is such an important issue for our industry, both because our customers, regulators and other policy people are focused on it, but it’s also a business opportunity for us to help our customers address their own environmental goals,” Gilbertson says.
The recent webinar afforded a chance to talk with large customers about the environmental benefits of shipping via rail and share information about the EPA SmartWay program.
“One of the points we made to these customers is that if you have a current movement of freight that has to go between point A and point B, you can reduce the carbon footprint by one-fourth if you just shift from truck to rail. And we have examples of actual data, using EPA criteria, of how much reduction there is,” says Gilbertson. “And of course, one of the benefits of rail generally is that the rates are cheaper than truck. So you can reduce your transportation spending and greatly improve your carbon footprint — that’s a pretty good combination of incomes.”
Anacostia Rail’s Pacific Harbor Line (PHL), which provides rail transportation, maintenance and dispatching services to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, has been active in SmartWay for more than seven years. Earlier this year, Anacostia Rail put all its railroads in the program.
Also, PHL is participating in a demonstration project with Progress Rail, which is supplying its new EMD® Joule battery electric locomotive for use at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Anacostia officials are “very excited” about helping beta test the new technology.
“We’ve tried to be a leader on these things,” Gilbertson says. “We’ve encouraged others to do it. And the short-line association has worked very closely with the EPA to facilitate that opportunity for all short-line members.”
Another goal of the ASLRRA Environment Committee: Be more vocal about all things green going on in rail, says Gilbertson.
“If we don’t tell our own story, no one will,” he says.
