Ottawa – Canada’s railways continue to invest in greener technologies and to introduce cleaner operating practices. The industry’s just-released Locomotive Emissions Report for 2006 shows the railways acquired 60 new, more fuel-efficient locomotives during the year, upgraded 19 high-horsepower units and retired 21 older ones.

“The railways are always seeking new ways to save energy,” said Cliff Mackay, President and CEO of the Railway Association of Canada, which represents the almost-60 freight and passenger railways operating in Canada. “They have changed policies and procedures and introduced new technologies that reduce locomotive idling, minimized fuel consumption with automatic engine stop-start devices and maximized their asset utilization.”

Conservation awareness and improved train handling procedures is now part of staff training. Acquisition of higher-capacity freight cars and lower-weight aluminum gondola cars also help achieve fuel efficiency gains, he said.

Freight fuel consumption per 1,000 revenue tonne kilometres has declined 24.3 per cent since the program’s base year of 1990, for example, and greenhouse gas emissions intensity declined 23.7 per cent during the same period. Passenger operations’ environmental performance has tracked the rest of the industry.
The annual Locomotive Emissions Report is published in accordance with the terms of a new five-year Memorandum of Understanding signed between Transport Canada, Environment Canada and the RAC last year that runs until 2010.

The railways transport 65 per cent of surface freight in Canada, carry 65 million inter-city and commuter passengers annually yet generate only three per cent of the country’s transportation greenhouse gas emissions. For further details, go to www.railcan.ca.

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