Rail environment and safety awards announced

CALGARY: Canada’s goods and passenger railways celebrated their sustainability and safety efforts in Calgary on October 17. The 2011 Rail Environment And Safety Performance Awards, recognizing outstanding initiatives to enhance the rail sector’s sustainability and safety performance, were presented by Cliff Mackay, president and CEO of the Railway Association of Canada and Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro.

This year, the RAC Environment Awards were presented to Canada’s two Class I railways. CN was recognized for its HPTA fuel efficiency team, which developed a web-based, real-time application to instruct engineers on the locomotive power output needed on their active train to conserve fuel.

CP’s award acknowledges its Genset locomotive testing program, started in March 2009 in Southern Ontario. CP acquired two Tier 2 Genset locomotives for yard switching operations. The motive power for these units is three independent, 700 horsepower industrial diesel engines which are activated incrementally to supply the traction horsepower required, resulting in fuel savings, low emissions and longer engine life. The testing program confirmed fuel savings of about 35 percent as compared to a traditional EMD GP9 yard switcher.

“In part because of lower volumes, fuel consumed in railway operations in Canada decreased by 14.3 percent in 2009,” said Mackay. “However, through ongoing initiatives such as these undertaken voluntarily by the sector, rail’s environmental GHG emissions continue to shrink below 1990 despite a substantial  increase in railway traffic.”