NS Mulls Electrification; UP Looks Away

A Norfolk Southern Railway executive said his company is exploring the potential to eventually electrify some freight rail lines in connection with passenger rail corridors, but the chief executive of Union Pacific Railroad said he is not considering freight electrification.

Earlier this year, BNSF Railway’s chairman, president and CEO, Matthew K. Rose, said he was in talks with transmission line companies that want to install new power lines in the railroad’s right of way. And he said BNSF was exploring whether that could help the railroad convert large parts of its sprawling western network to electricity.

Industry sources indicated other large carriers were looking at the same options, as Congress and the Obama administration push to upgrade the capacity of the U.S. electricity grid and tie in more alternative power sources including wind energy farms. (See Special Report: Electrifying Freight Rail)

Some observers also say the Obama administration’s push to jumpstart high-speed passenger rail lanes could push freight lines to electrify some of their trains, since true high-speed trains run on electricity and their most likely corridors might be in lanes now owned by freight railroads.

In an interview outside the North American Rail Shippers Association annual meeting in Chicago, NS Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Donald W. Seale said “we’re having some discussion and review” about the potential to at some point electrify some track and trains.

“We at NS don’t see rail electrification in the near term” for freight, Seale said, but he added that could start in connection with passenger rail corridor development. Norfolk Southern’s territory covers the Southeast, Midwest and many parts of the Northeast.

James R. Young, the chairman, president and CEO of UP, said “we are seeing an increase in the number of inquiries from (transmission line) companies that are interested in our right of way.”

But, “we haven’t extended it as far as saying would we do anything with electrification,” he said. “Right now, that is not on my radar screen.” UP is the western rival to BNSF; both have networks that range across the West and into the Midwest.

Seale said power lines would not be the driver at NS for any potential electrified freight trains.