Union Pacific Railroad Uses Training, Gravity, Rewards to Conserve Fuel When a new Union Pacific engineer gets into the simulator, the trainer lets the student drive a virtual train 20 miles without much instruction. Then the education begins. The lessons are important because engineers have a significant impact on how much fuel is burned by the railroad's 8,000 locomotives. And that adds up quickly, since the railroad burns about 3.25 million gallons of diesel a day. Brad West and Jay Canaday teach their fellow engineers some techniques that sound familiar to motorists facing gasoline price spikes and concerns about gas mileage. Strategies such as accelerating slowly, limiting time spent idling and trying to anticipate conditions ahead are just as useful on rails as on highways. But the most important lesson for engineers is also one of the simplest: "You let gravity do a lot of work for your train," West said. Last year, Union Pacific's program to encourage engineers to conserve fuel helped the railroad save 16 million gallons of diesel and $30 million. And that's with only about half the engineers participating. The first quarter of 2006 saw Union Pacific haul more freight than a year ago while using roughly the same amount of fuel -- a first for the company. The railroad hauled about 2 percent more freight while using 345 million gallons of fuel, which is up slightly from the 344 million gallons used last year. Encouraging engineers to change the way they drive is one part of Union Pacific's efforts to conserve diesel. The railroad also invested in about 1,900 fuel-efficient locomotives since 2000 and overhauled another 1,300 of its older units to be more efficient. UBS analyst Rick Paterson said all railroads are taking similar measures because fuel costs can erode profits. The nation's second-largest railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., also teaches its engineers techniques to help conserve diesel, spokesman Steve Forsberg said, but it doesn't offer financial incentives to employees. The Fort Worth, Texas, railroad has also bought more than 2,500 new locomotives over the past few years, Forsberg said. To help recover the soaring cost of fuel, Union Pacific has surcharges in most of its contracts. Still, diesel is a significant expense for the railroad, which last year spent nearly $2.6 billion on fuel and utilities. Union Pacific's surcharges recover about 90 percent of the railroad's costs above 75 cents per gallon. - Josh Fink, The Associated Press, The Yankton Press & Dakotan
