Moving on Climate

Amtrak is making significant progress in reducing fuel use through anti-idling practices for locomotives, installation of automatic start/stop technology that also limits idling of locomotives, aerodynamic improvements of rolling stock that reduce “drag,” improved engineer training for more fuel-efficient locomotive operations, and emerging green technology. For example, Amtrak has equipped 80 percent of the Northeast Corridor locomotive fleet with regenerative brakes, which can return up to 8 percent of the power they use back to the electrical grid. A regenerative brake is a device used for energy recovery during a locomotive’s deceleration process and converts some of the kinetic energy back into useable energy instead of dissipating it as heat.