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Mar 6, 2011

TRUCKS vs. TRAINS * USA - Railroads boast fuel advantage

Trucks struggle as diesel costs rise

Detroit,MICH,USA -Bloomberg, by Mark Clothier -February 28, 2011: -- News U.S. railroads’ fuel-efficiency advantage over trucking companies may expand as they boost investments in technology while truckers must put more of their money into personnel...  Freight railroads such as Union Pacific Corp. are investing in systems that automatically shut off engines under certain conditions and software that coordinates trains’ movements more efficiently. The trucking industry, working to meet its first-ever fuel-efficiency standards, is being forced to divert more spending to attract workers and battle increased competition as more trucks fill the highways...   Railroads can move a ton of freight 156 miles to 512 miles on a gallon of fuel, compared with 68 miles to 133 miles for truckers, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. That edge has become even more crucial as a gallon of diesel fuel has risen to more than $3.50 today from 10 cents in 1970... Union Pacific has equipped 70 percent of its 8,350 locomotives with technology that turns off the engine after varying idle times, said Mike Iden, general director of car and locomotive engineering. The process conserves about 167,000 gallons of fuel a day, he said. With diesel at $3.53 a gallon, the daily savings equal $589,500...   Union Pacific, based in Omaha, Neb., last year sped the adoption of staggering engines throughout a train to spread the locomotive power, moving 62 percent of its gross ton miles that way, up from 35 percent in 2008. Distributing power improves trains’ fuel efficiency as much as 6 percent, Iden said...  General Electric, which makes locomotives, has developed air-traffic-control-style software that manages the 2,500 engines on Norfolk Southern Corp.’s network. CSX Corp. uses a program that tells conductors and dispatchers when, where and how to speed up trains... (A SOLUTION: Trucks and Trains: Patnem, India)

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