Transcript:
Last December, the Army’s first battery-electric locomotive went into service at Fort Hood in Texas. And it’s benefiting both the climate and national security.
The rail industry has long relied on diesel engines that emit climate-warming carbon dioxide and pollution that’s dangerous to breathe.
Ira Dorfman of Innovative Rail Technologies says his company’s zero-emissions design reduces those harmful impacts without trade-offs to the train’s power or performance.
Dorfman: “It’s important that we can do everything that a traditional diesel locomotive can do, and we’ve proven that …we can pull as many Abrams tanks as that diesel locomotive can pull.”
The locomotive they built for the Army comes with another advantage, too. It has a bidirectional charging system that allows electricity to flow both ways, so its batteries can provide a source of power to Fort Hood during severe weather or other emergencies.
Dorfman acknowledges that purchasing a new electric train is expensive.
Dorfman: “Most of the locomotives that are running today were built between the 1950s and the 1970s.”
And they’re typically rehabilitated instead of fully replaced.
But for the Army, investing in an electric locomotive is also an investment in resiliency.
Reporting credit: Myriam Vidal Valero / ChavoBart Digital Media
