There’s a story making the rounds of an energy/climate success story: the Netherlands are running trains using electricity 100% generated by wind farms so that it’s carbon free. BrightVibes has the details and some interesting graphics and videos.
As from 1 January 2017 100% of Dutch electric trains are powered by wind energy. The Dutch railways company NS is the world’s first railway company that gets 100% of its energy from wind energy...
...Energy company Eneco provides NS the energy to transport 600.000 people per day. That’s 1.200.000 train trips per day without any CO2 emissions.
NS requires 1.2B kWh of wind-powered energy per year, which is the same amount all households in Amsterdam consume per year. The partnership with NS, allowed Eneco to invest substantially in the expansion of its wind turbine parks.
Eneco and NS Dutch Railways only sealed the partnership in 2015. It shows what can be achieved on the road to a sustainable future when we really put our minds to it.
In addition, NS has committed to lower its energy consumption by 2% per year. Did you know that since 2005 NS has already decreased its energy consumptions by 30%?
You can find out more about Eneco here. There’s info about the Netherlands rail system here, Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
A few caveats. There are still some lines that are not electrified so there are still some trains running on diesel power — but the goal is to convert them all. The article also notes the Netherlands lag behind other European countries on reducing carbon emissions to alleviate climate change.
When we look at the bigger picture on how well the Netherlands perform compared to other European countries in fighting climate change, the Netherlands is not doing well. According to Eurostat, in 2014 only 5.5% of its energy consumption came from renewable energy sources. Compared to the European average of 16% in 2014, the Netherlands is way behind its peers and its European target.
That is the main reason why - together with 900 citizens - the Urgenda Foundation filed the Climate Case against the Dutch Government. And they won. The Urgenda Climate Case is the first case in which regular citizens have managed to hold their government accountable for taking insufficient action to keep them safe from dangerous climate change.
emphasis added
The Netherlands rail story is impressive because they managed to meet their goal ahead of schedule by about a year. The hard part is not getting enough wind power to generate electricity for trains — the big investment is in all the infrastructure needed to power trains by electricity: the overhead wiring, locomotives, rolling stock, and such. While green considerations are a factor in using electrified rail systems, there’s also another: HSR.
Most High Speed Rail (HSR) systems rely on electricity for a number of reasons. (Speed, efficiency, reliability, etc.) In the U.S. there are few long distance or intercity lines using electricity to power trains (the Northeast Corridor is one) because most of America’s rail system is private freight operations, and speed is not as critical for moving freight as it is for moving people.
It’s also more expensive to build and maintain track up to standards that can support higher speeds — and that’s not including the overhead for overhead wires. The private sector simply doesn’t have the financial incentives these days to invest in passenger service, let alone anything approaching HSR — with a few exceptions. (Here and here.)
Critical factors seem to be potential ridership, routes connecting cities with high traffic potential as destinations, distances where HSR is a viable against air travel, highway congestion, and places to build rail lines. The state of California is attempting to build an HSR system because all of those come into play in the Golden State. That effort is running into roadblocks under the Trump regime, as per what’s happening to one element in the picture.
In a major blow to a 15-year-long effort to modernize Caltrain, federal transit officials on Friday said they are withholding $647 million the agency was counting on this month to start work on a project to electrify the train line between San Francisco and San Jose.
The decision by the Federal Transit Administration comes just weeks after California’s Republicans in Congress asked the Trump administration to block the funds in an effort to halt one of California’s most controversial public works projects: high-speed rail.
The Netherlands has a real incentive to invest in rail as part of climate change efforts — rising seas are no joke for them. (And they’ve been using wind power for centuries.) Demand in the U.S. for better passenger service is evidenced by continuing ridership growth for Amtrak. Whether or not president* Trump embraces rail as part of his call for infrastructure is an open question, given longstanding GOP hostility to Amtrak and spending on non-military ‘green’ public works in general. (Here’s what a real infrastructure program looks like. Here’s one we really need in the U.S.A.)
Meanwhile, here’s the CEO of NS showing his commitment to running trains with the power of the wind.
A recent episode of NOVA was something of a state of the art story on railroading in the United States. Why Trains Crash looks at safety issues — but it also looks at what other countries are doing and how they manage safety. (The entire 55 minute episode is at the link.)
If you’re interested in more on railroad topics at Daily Kos, BruceMcF has been doing regular posts on railroad news with his Sunday Train series. Take a look at his Steel Interstate for some thought-provoking proposals.