Pacific Harbor Line (PHL), together with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), has received partial funding for five new Progress Rail battery-electric locomotives and two battery chargers through the Federal Railroad Administration’s CRISI program, and has earned safety awards from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.
The railroad’s parent company, Anacostia Rail Holdings, made the announcements Oct. 29.
CARB applied for the CRISI (Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements) Program grant, which will be used for PHL’s acquisition, as well as Watco’s acquisition of four battery-electric locomotives and two battery chargers, and Sacramento Valley Railroad’s acquisition of one hydrogen fuel cell-powered locomotive.
PHL is contributing $6.37 million toward the $34.2 million cost of its new locomotives and chargers. It already operates an EMD® Joule battery-electric unit from Progress Rail, which has had a “successful” first year, according to Anacostia Rail Holdings. Bringing on four additional battery-electric units is expected to reduce NOx emissions by more than 17 tons per year and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by 0.249 tons per year, and to eliminate 459 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year, Anacostia Rail Holdings said.
PHL has upgraded its fleet to EPA Tier 3+ locomotives, and operates a Tier 4 unit in addition to the Joule unit currently in service. It switches some 40,000 railcars annually and dispatches more than 30 intermodal trains per day from nine on-dock intermodal terminals.
“We are gratified that PHL was chosen to receive funding as part of the CRISI grant award,” PHL President Otis L. Cliatt II said. “It is a transformative step that will support our continuing commitment to reducing emissions at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest port complex in the U.S.”
Separately, PHL on Oct. 29 was presented with ASLRRA’s President’s Award for Safety, along with a Jake Safety Award, at the association’s Central & Pacific Region Meeting in Dallas, Tex. This is the third consecutive year that PHL has earned the President’s Award, which recognizes railroads that post the lowest reportable injury frequency rate per Federal Railroad Administration regulations as measured within industry per-hour categories. PHL said it had the best rate among Pacific Region railroads with 250,000–500,000 annual hours worked. In the past 11 years, PHL has also earned eight Jake Awards.
“I could not be prouder of everyone on the PHL team for their dedication to safe and reliable operations,” Otis L. Cliatt II said. “We have a strong culture of safety for the well-being of all our valued employees, and to assure our customers and community that we can be trusted to deliver the nation’s freight without incident.”
“It was an honor to accept this award on behalf of everyone at PHL,” PHL Director of Operations Rick VanZee said. “The fact that we are so often a recipient of the industry’s highest safety awards is a direct result of our basic focus on safety: ‘One move at a time, one shift at a time, one day at a time.’”
