General Electric Transportation’s emissions-reducing rail systems have accumulated 100 million auto-control miles, helping the rail industry save 56 million gallons of fuel and $197 million in fuel costs, as well as reducing greenhouse gasses by 628 kilotons.
GE has delivered more than 500 Evolution Series Tier 4 compliant locomotives to North American customers along with its auto-pilot controls system for railroads called Trip Optimizer.
The technology being developed by GE Transportation helps the rail industry optimize networks, minimize downtime and reduce operating costs, the company says.
GE Transportation’s Evolution Series Tier 4 locomotive is the first freight locomotive to meet the strict Tier 4 emission regulations set by the EPA. GE’s smartest locomotive has more than 200 sensors onboard, processes over a billion instructions per second and provides about 10GB of data per locomotive year.
Trip Optimizer customers have seen fuel savings of 3 percent to 17 percent, depending on the type of train service and rail topography, with average savings for the fleet estimated at 10 percent. Improved fuel efficiency brings related emissions savings, and customers experienced an average 10 percent reduction in emissions, the company says. Trip Optimizer is certified by the EPA as an emissions savings energy-management system.
Today, Trip Optimizer is installed in more than 6,000 GE locomotives around the world. Global customers, including six of the seven Class 1 railroads, have ordered an additional 2,000 systems. Trip Optimizer will be available on non-GE locomotives at the beginning of 2016.
In addition, GE has now released the SmartHPT (horsepower per ton) upgrade. This allows Trip Optimizer to idle select locomotives within a train to maintain track speed for additional fuel savings.