Gulfwind2
Train Attendant
I felt curious as to how much truth there is to the idea that electric power saves substantially over the cost of fueling diesels in railway operations as far as Amtrak is concerned. It is common knowledge that electrics have the advantage of being able to pull longer trains from being more powerful than modern diesels.But Amtrak (to my vague degree of knowledge) has nationwide contracts in place which keep the cost of diesel well below $2 per gallon in most markets where its trains use diesel locomotives, which seems extraordinarily efficient from a relative perspective. Maybe I'm asking for something too specific, but is it realistic that Amtrak's use of catenary in the NEC delivers significant annual cost savings versus an alternate reality where the entire corridor had been dieselized?