Maybe you’ve heard about the proposed high-speed train in California. Well, Sweden is beating the West Coast to the punch with their Green Train.

The Green Train, or Gröna Tåget, will cut energy use on rail lines by 30 percent through lowered operational costs and journey times. Top speeds reached 183 MPH on a test run.

Best of all, the Green Train can operate on the current rail infrastructure. That means there’s no need to lay down new tracks.

Energy saving measures on the train include a permanent magnet motor to increase propulsion chain efficiency and a system that saves up to 15 percent of traction energy by assisting drivers with speed and traction force information.

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Ooooh… I can hear the flamers’ keys clicking away furiously already. But, before you type that horribly thought out gunslinging response, hear me out.

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Designed to never stop running – something you would almost imagine to be a vital necessity on a train – Peng’s talent for invention has awarded him a bronze medal at the Nuremburg International Inventors Exhibition in Germany, as well as a silver medal at the Taipei International Inventors Exhibition; so he can’t be too far off the track (sorry), can he?

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The first biodiesel blend train pulled out of Creston last week, hauling 52 cars of wheat and 500 gallons of biodiesel in the locomotives saddlebag tanks.  Officials are using a 25 percent blend of biodiesel in the tests.

The fuel is made by Columbia Bioenergy, located in Creston, which uses canola oil, restaurant grease, soy and other crops as feedstock.

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In order to cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in the delivery of new automobiles, Honda has launched a 400-car fleet of new Auto-Max railcars to carry its products from factory to city.  Currently, Honda transports 82 percent of its Honda and Acura cars by rail, more than another other automaker.

The new, multi-level rail cars hold up to 22 vehicles, both cars and trucks, to reduce unused space.  Honda says conventional rail cars hold only 10 trucks.

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“Railroads are the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient way to move goods on land.”

Freight trains have evolved over the years, carrying freight in a variety of ways, including taking semi-trailer rigs off the highways and shipping them on flat-cars. If you’re anywhere near a railroad track, you’ll see what are called intermodal trains carrying shipping containers stacked on top of one another, along with trailers and the usual box cars and other forms of equipment.

However, the physical infrastructure in some areas of the country creates a barrier for some railroads who want to stack shipping containers in order to carry more freight.

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“One train can carry the load of more than 280 trucks.”

If you live near a railroad, you see them every day, flat cars with semi-trailers secured to the deck, or shipping containers stacked two-high. They’re moving freight that isn’t clogging our highways and polluting the air with excess hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide and particulates produced by over-the road trucks.

So says the CSX Railroad, a major carrier of goods in the mid-Atlantic shipping corridor, now positioning itself for $700 million in system improvements. The program is called National Gateway, a project the railroad says will create a more efficient flow of rail traffic between Mid-Atlantic ports and Midwestern markets.

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As a recent transplant to the Bay Area, I have noticed that San Francisco and Los Angeles seem worlds away from each other both physically and culturally. Now that a plan to build a high-speed train linking the two cities is moving forward, that distance will become a whole lot smaller—physically, at least.

In case you aren’t familiar with the plan, here are the basics: The California High Speed Rail Authority is in the beginning stages of building an 800-mile long high-speed train system that will serve every major city in California. The trains will be capable of speeds up to 220 miles per hour, and the trip time from San Francisco to L.A. will be only 2 hours and 40 minutes. That’s comparable to the time it takes to travel between the two locations on a plane.

By providing a viable alternative to energy-intensive car and air travel, the rail system will reduce carbon emissions up to 17.6 billion pounds per year and reduce oil consumption up to 22 million barrels per year.

Pretty amazing, right? And now the California High-Speed Rail Authority is going to get a boost with new member Thomas Umberg.

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Imagine a high-speed rail line that could get you from San Francisco to LA in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

That dream appears to be coming true, thanks to work by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. After getting a green light by State environmental impact assessors, they’ve begun implementation of an 800-mile bullet-train system that will connect Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego. Trains traveling at 220 mph on the systems are forecast to carry up to 100 million passengers per year by 2030.

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So who are the world’s most railway friendly countries, and what can we learn from them about implementing practical rail services that people will actually want to use?

Data provided by The International Union of Railways shows Japan as the world leader among major economies in rail kilometres per inhabitant, followed by Europe lead by the Swiss. The United Kingdom comes, unsurprisingly, near the bottom, with the USA coming last - US citizens traveling one thirteenth the distance of the Japanese by rail.

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That’s a 32% increase since 1995.

via GreenCarCongress

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