“The company’s goals of economic and environmental development are inextricably linked”, Russian Railways Senior Vice President Valentin Gapanovich said during his speech at the Second Global Rail Freight Conference in St Petersburg.

He said that Russian Railways is the largest corporate energy consumer in Russia, so a key priority for the company is energy saving and improving energy efficiency, as the most important aspect of environmental policy.

“From the time of the company’s founding six years ago, harmful atmospheric emissions have been brought down by 40%, and emissions of contaminated wastewater have been reduced by 63%”, Gapanovich said.

Russian Railways is currently developing modern energy-efficient types of rolling stock. In line with the Russian Energy Strategy, the company has set a goal of replacing up to 30% of diesel fuel used in internal combustion engine-powered locomotives with natural gas by 2030.

In particular, the company has created the first mainline gas turbine-electric freight locomotive GT1-001, with maximum power output of 8,300 kW.

The high traction capacity of the turbine-electric locomotive allows it to pull a train of 15,000 tons, which is a world record for an internal combustion engine-powered locomotive with a single prime mover. Emission levels from the gas turbine prime mover is more than five times lower than the requirements for diesel under the EU directive for 2012, while the noise level meets Russian state requirements.

The life-cycle cost of the turbine-electric locomotive is almost 20% lower than that of a mainline diesel locomotive. The use of cryogenic technology in the locomotive can also be applied to other forms of transport.

According to expert estimates, the reduction in specific energy consumption for train traction will cause a decline in greenhouse gas emissions from 2010 to 2015 of more than 12 million tons.