Why the Government Just Threw Down $225 Million on Hybrid Electric Trains

The Illinois Department of Transportation signed a contract to bring a total of 32 hybrid electric-diesel trains to the United States last month.  The trains will start running by 2016.  And the project, when all is said and done, will cost the United States $225 million — a number that may sound enormous but that will actually save a significant amount of both money and the carbon pollution that drives climate change.

“The Charger locomotives will be used exclusively in passenger service,” a release from Siemens, the company manufacturing the locomotives, says.  The trains “will be manufactured in the U.S. by Cummins Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Indiana,” and, will run in Illinois, California, Michigan, Missouri and Washington.  Should all go well with the original 32, there’s an option for an additional 225 locomotives down the line.  The hybrid electric engines will make the trains more efficient.

Transportation is one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions and thus climate change in the world.  But the questions on rail specifically are more complex.  Its emissions make it among the most efficient methods of transportation — accounting for about two percent of transportation emissions compared with 70 percent from cars.

Why the Government Just Threw Down $225 Million on Hybrid Electric Trains