USA: The Siemens Mobility Charger diesel-electric locomotives hauling Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner service are now using renewable fuel made from materials including used cooking oil.
The Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency which manages the Pacific Surfliner service said this would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 63% throughout the life-cycle, with the potential to improve local air quality by reducing particulates and nitrogen oxides.
LOSSAN said the Pacific Surfliner was already an efficient mode of travel, ‘as train travel is 46% more-energy efficient than travelling by car’.
The Pacific Surfliner runs 565 km along the California coast from San Diego to Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, with 29 stations. LOSSAN says it is the busiest state-supported inter-city passenger rail route in the USA.
