USA: CSX will be the first railway to demonstrate Wabtec’s Trip Optimizer Zero-to-Zero technology for the automatic starting and stopping of trains, and has placed orders for locomotive modifications which are designed to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
Zero-to-Zero builds on the established Trip Optimizer cruise control function, which uses route information, train composition, speed restrictions and operating conditions to calculate an optimum speed profile and can automatically control the locomotive to reduce fuel consumption. Zero-to-Zero allows Trip Optimizer to start and stop the train automatically, using air brake control and signal aspect information.
CSX has also placed the first order for Wabtec’s Tier 4 shunting locomotive modernisation programme, which will refurbish locos up to 50 years old to provide a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency and a 90% reduction in emissions. Wabtec said it offers the only Tier 4 upgrade on the market that does not require a urea after-treatment system.
CSX will also modernise locomotives across its fleet with Wabtec’s FDL Advantage engine enhancement package, which reduces fuel consumption by up to 5% using a high-pressure common rail fuel system offering improved injection control.
CSX has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 37% by 2030, and the Wabtec technologies ‘will enable CSX to maximise the full potential of its fleet both from an environmental and a financial perspective’, said Gina Trombley, the supplier’s Senior Vice-President of Sales & and Marketing, on June 24.
