New Zealand national rail operator KiwiRail is installing TTG Transportation Technology’s Energymiser Driver Advisory System in a bid to cut energy consumption and environmental emissions, while managing on-time running of trains.
Following a successful trial and competitive tendering process, TTG will now rollout Energymiser across KiwiRail’s freight trains – retrofitting up to 182 mainline diesel and electric locomotives.
Energymiser is a connected driver advisory system providing real-time advice for train drivers to identify precise points where to coast, power and brake to conserve energy while helping ensure on-time running, and automatically adapting to actual conditions throughout each train trip.
The product has achieved between 14 percent to more than 20 percent energy savings for high-speed passenger and coal trains in the UK, where the product is the market leader on a congested rail network. Energymise has resulted in 8.9 percent energy savings for iron ore trains in Africa and up to 10 percent or more for freight trains in Australia, the UK and India, TTG says.
Energymiser can also improve on-time running of trains and utilization of rail capacity by interfacing with existing train scheduling systems to provide drivers real-time advice that regulates pacing between trains and critical timing points on the rail network throughout day of operation, TTG says.
BNSF Railway customers’ use of rail for freight shipping prevented more than 30 million metric tons of CO2e from entering the atmosphere in 2012, the company announced in April.
By shipping freight by rail instead of entirely over the road, the railway’s customers eliminated the consumption and resultant emissions from more than three billion gallons of diesel fuel, equivalent to six million passenger vehicles. Moving a ton of freight by rail rather than by truck cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent, the company said.
Earlier this year, a report by energy services company McKinstry found that shipping a container on the Cold Train refrigerated express intermodal service between Chicago and Port of Quincy, Wash., reduces the shipment’s carbon footprint by 52 percent compared to a long-haul truck – validating a previous estimate by BNSF.