If the United States wants better air quality and environmental health, it should start with its trains, according to researchers in California. In an article published in Nature Energy, they state that replacing diesel-powered trains with electric battery-powered ones throughout the nation’s railway system would lead to huge reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions as well as harms to human lung health caused by smog.
Current U.S. freight trains are diesel-electric, using batteries to start their engines but relying on fuel combustion to keep moving. These trains emit 35 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and cause air pollution that results in $6.5 billion in health-care costs and an estimated 1,000 premature deaths per year, according to the researchers, who are from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California’s Los Angeles and Berkeley campuses. They noted that the health impacts fall disproportionately on lower-income communities, which tend to be located closer to railroads.
The researchers’ analysis found, however, that retrofitting all of the diesel-electric freight trains into all-electric would cut the freight industry’s carbon emissions in half, amounting to a reduction of 400 million metric tons of carbon emissions over the next 20 years, said Natalie Popovich, Berkeley Lab scientist and lead author of the study.
They do not expect the retrofitting process to be too expensive, either. Noting substantial drops in battery prices in recent years, they said that battery power is now cost-competitive with diesel power, and that the U.S. freight rail sector would actually save $94 billion over the next 20 years by making the switch.
“A rapid conversion of the freight-rail sector is not only technically feasible and cost-effective, it would bring immediate and lasting health and economic benefits to lower income communities,” said Popovich. “And it would provide a boost to our nation’s efforts to curb climate change.”
Berkeley Lab scientist Amol Phadke, corresponding author of the study, noted another non-rail-related benefit of all-electric trains: They could deploy as clean backup power generators during local emergencies. Cities and towns near railways have historically used diesel-electric trains to generate power during ice storms and other situations when electric grids were down.
“These battery tender cars could be deployed during extreme events, such as during the recent catastrophic wildfires in California or the 2021 winter storm in Texas that left millions without access to electricity. This mobile energy storage capability would also create a potential new revenue stream for freight rail operators,” Phadke said.