It is also the year that offers an opportunity for meaningful change. With the 2021 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP26) set to take place in Glasgow this November, policymakers’ minds are more focused than ever on finding new courses of action to curb climate change and reach the UN’s 1.5°C global warming goal.
The European Green Deal equally sets out policy initiatives designed to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. Moreover, there is now strong awareness across all generations of Europeans that we need to change – and urgently. Reducing emissions, while not the only issue, is at the heart of this challenge.
I am personally convinced that rail has a pivotal role to play in this transformation. If the transport sector overall is one of the largest contributors to emissions, the share of rail is marginal – around 0.5% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport.1
Improving the efficiency of rail can reduce emissions still further. But even more important is the need to provide a convenient, cost-effective, reliable, and comfortable rail network that offers passengers a viable and attractive alternative to road and air. In the industry we all have a role to play in achieving this goal.
Rail’s green advantage
Let’s take a closer look at emissions. While most sectors in Europe have reduced their emissions over time, transportation has increased them. This rise comes largely from road transport2, which increased emissions by 170 Mt CO2e between 1990 and 2017. Emissions from aviation have also increased significantly as more passengers take to the skies.
Railway direct emissions, by contrast, have declined by 66% over the same period, largely due to rapid electrification of the railway network. Rail also presents significant benefits in terms of energy independence, accounting for under 2% of total EU energy consumption in transport.
Finally, the life expectancy of a railway vehicle is more than 30 years (and even up to 50 years with some rail operators), more than double the length of life for the average car, bus, or truck. The durability of rail assets results in fewer emissions from their production and less waste.
How efficient equipment contributes to lower emissions
At Wabtec, we have been contributing for several decades now to this switch to green. Our teams work to develop products that meet our customers’ performance and safety expectations, while increasing energy efficiency and cutting emissions through the lifecycle.
The original versions of some of this technology goes back decades. The move from diesel to electric power that has cut emissions dramatically across the rail sector has been possible thanks to pantographs mounted on the roof of an electric train, to collect power through contact with an overhead line.
Large-scale electrification of Europe’s networks has intensified over the past three decades. Yet the “modern pantograph” essential to electrification was invented by Louis Faiveley, the founder of what is now Wabtec’s Transit global business in 1919. Wabtec is now a leading supplier of quality pantographs, third rail shoes and even third rail that improve electric traction.
Emissions reductions are also the result of improvements to train equipment, for example in the use of lighter components such as brakes. Wabtec’s use of additive technology is now providing a new breakthrough reducing weight by up to 25% versus the most recent brake control systems. For other applications, we are also now providing 3D printed parts to the latest French high-speed train TGV M.
Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems (HVAC) are another example of emissions-intensive equipment that have been improved through innovation. Wabtec’s most recent energy-efficient HVAC systems have been shown to result in energy savings of up to 30%.
We have now developed a suite of solutions to improve trains’ onboard energy efficiency, which is being tested in partnership with Keolis in Bordeaux, Tours and Brest. For our teams, this is the logical continuity of a development program on energy efficiency which we started 15 years ago. It will be enhanced by digitalization and automation, which has the potential to accelerate improvements in sustainability thanks to improved data collection and efficiency.
Supporting a Europe-wide shift to rail
Wabtec has also supported systemic shifts that reduce emissions, notably the development of high-speed railways that can often replace the need for high-pollution air travel. For years, the flight connection between Paris and London was the most important worldwide. In 1994 more than four million passengers used the route annually; in 2007, thanks to the high-speed rail line between the cities, that figure was down to just over two million. The same year, Faiveley Transport’s pantograph helped France’s TGV network set a new speed record for conventional trains, which remains uncontested.
This is important, because the easiest way to reduce emissions from transportation is to move passengers from road or air onto rail. For journeys under three hours, rail is considered an attractive alternative to air: the challenge, then, is to develop high-speed routes that cut travel time. For this reason, we are particularly proud to be supplying Germany’s new fleet of ICE4 high-speed trains with doors, pantographs, brakes, and air-conditioning, or also the Italian ETR1000, the fastest train in Europe.
A more complex challenge is how to improve the attractiveness of rail, and on this topic, we are actively working with operators and car-builders. Our passenger information systems, beyond providing information in a safe and reliable manner, are using the latest display technology, offering comfort and a much better passenger experience.
Air quality is also essential to improve rail attractiveness. We are working closely with the Paris metro to reduce fine particle emissions from friction breaking by up to 90%3, and this will set a new standard for friction in tunnels. We have also tested with Transdev our filtering technology (Bluefilter) on tramways, demonstrating efficiency of 99.9%4 in less than 7mn in real operating conditions. This technology will also be used on the latest high-speed trains ordered by Deutsche Bahn.
Our journey to greater sustainability
My teams and I are very proud of the contribution Wabtec has made and continues to make through our commitment to innovation. However, I am also aware that we can do even more. Change must happen at an individual level as well as a product level. That is the conviction behind the introduction of Wabtec’s employee awards for environmental efforts.
We have celebrated the winner of “innovating with purpose” with our Air Conditioning Team in Leipzig and their successful development and implementation of a natural refrigerant gas to reduce drastically the CO2 impact of these gas. The second award was around “driving responsible operations” with our plant in Tours and the implementation of system recovering the industrial heat during winter and the summer nocturnal freshness. The last the trophy on “empower people and community” was given to our team in Canada for their fantastic activities in this area. Another example is our adoption of the 6S methodology for implementing environmental improvements in our factories. Based on the traditional 5S methodology we are adding a 6th element: Sustain. This is based on the idea of making small improvements, right across the organization, that add up to achieving a bigger goal.
That notion is at the heart of how I envisage Wabtec’s journey toward greater sustainability. Our industry is not perfect: we need to reduce time to market and costs, and we must improve attractiveness. But my teams and I are committed to taking consistent, effective steps towards a greener future. Important progress has already been made, but there is much more still to do, and we want to be one of the leaders in the march to change.
References:
1. Source: European Union Agency for Railways. All subsequent figures cited in this article are drawn from this report unless otherwise stated.
2. Source: European Environment Agency.
3. Measured reduction up to 90% for the finest particles (PM5 and PM2.5).
4. Eliminate particles down to 0.2 µm, bacteria and viruses like Sars-CoV-2. Eliminate 99.9% of Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) in 33 minutes.
This article was written by Lilian Leroux, transit president, CEO of Faiveley Transport at Wabtec Corporation.