GO Transit’s first MP54AC Tier 4-compliant diesel-electric locomotive from the MotivePower Inc. (MPI) Division of Wabtec has been delivered and underwent testing on the weekend of Dec. 12-13, 2015. No. 47 is part of a $4 million order for 11 MP54ACs announced in 2012.
California, Illinois and Maryland have ordered a combined 34 Charger diesel-electric passenger locomotives from Siemens Mobility, bringing the number of state Departments of Transportation procuring these units to six and the total number of units to 69. The locomotives will be built at the Siemens rail manufacturing plant in Sacramento, Calif.
The bright red diesel power plants that were on display at Railway Interchange 2015 in Minneapolis represented the “ultra-clean” 6.7-, 15-, 60- and 95-liter units from Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins Inc. These engines, delivering from 140 hp (104 kW) to 4,400 hp (3,281 kW) “offer quieter operation and increased fuel economy for everything from maintenance-of-way machines to locomotives while also meeting increasingly stringent emissions regulations worldwide,” the company said.
Cummins Inc. announced Oct. 2, 2015 that the first production 95-liter, 16-cylinder QSK95 engine built to a rail specification has been shipped.
With the launch of Union Pearson Express (UPE) connecting Lester B. Pearson International Airport to Toronto Union Station on June 6, the Cummins QSK19-R becomes the first railcar diesel engine produced in North America certified to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Tier 4 Final emissions regulations.
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) service “is two years away from the start of passenger service between the Sonoma County Airport and downtown San Rafael” in northern California, and the project “is on solid financial footing,” according to SMART Chief Financial Officer Erin McGrath.