Comment Log Display

Dear Elizabeth, Dear Air Resources Board,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this draft version of
the Technology Assessment: Freight Locomotives (April 2016)
[http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/tech/techreport/freight_locomotives_tech_report.pdf].
We hope that our comments will be valuable for the development and
completion of this report. We identified a number of items that may
require document changes, additional research and/ or data
validation. Please see our suggestions below.

The Siemens Mobility Division provides answers with its
comprehensive portfolio; because modern, interconnected and
IT-based mobility is the core competency of its five business
units: Mobility Management, Turnkey Projects & Electrification,
Mainline Transport, Urban Transport and Customer Services. They
have the know-how to make road traffic in the US flow more smoothly
and quickly, make trains more environmentally friendly and
efficient, make train schedules and freight shipments more
reliable. We work with our customers to develop optimal solutions
to help overcome their challenges. Siemens manufactures light rail
vehicles, Tier 4 passenger locomotives and passenger coaches for
various customers throughout the US in Sacramento, CA.

1)	Page ES-10: 11. Last bullet point: Fully electric locomotives
are powered by an electric overhead line, not "charged" as
mentioned in the report.
2)	Page ES-10: Bottom of the page, last sentence as well as V-11:
Please specify what CARB is referring to with providing a "supply
network" for the urea required by SCR systems. Based on our
experience in the Tier 4 passenger locomotive market, suppliers
exist and are ready to supply urea. Supply likely will leverage the
current diesel supply chain to railroads.
3)	Page I-6: Last sentence: Figure I-6 shows one example of a Tier
4 passenger locomotive, not "the new generation of Tier 4 passenger
locomotives" as stated in the document. 
We suggest to update the sentence to include information on the
Siemens Charger locomotives which are currently being built in
Sacramento, CA.
https://w3.usa.siemens.com/mobility/us/en/interurban-mobility/rail-solutions/high-speed-and-intercity-trains/Documents/Multi-State_Charger%20DE%20Locomotive_DataSheet_LR.pdf

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/siemens-shows-first-complete-charger-locomotive.html

4)	Page VIII-3: Last sentence of first paragraph: "Therefore,
all-electric freight locomotives have significantly less pulling
power (i.e., up to two-thirds less – though they are typically
higher horsepower for speed) than U.S. diesel-electric freight
interstate line haul locomotives." --> This statement is not
correct and should be removed.
5)	Page VIII-5: The 1999 paper from Bharat Bhargava appears
outdated and does not include any of the more recent achievements,
e.g. in China. This section should be updated or removed. E.g. the
Siemens HXD1 9,600kW electric freight locomotive in Datong, China
operates at 25 kV/ 50 Hz AC. 
6)	Page VIII-8: Entire section D. Capital Costs: Locomotives and
Infrastructure should be updated or removed. As stated in the
document, CARB has limited access to relevant capital cost
information. To our mind, publishing a capital cost estimate based
entirely on staff opinion and without a meaningful calculation does
not appear useful. The available data seems unreasonably high which
cannot be validated without a transparent data baseline.  It is
also not clear from the document, why an increase to a 75kV or a
100kV system may be required. If more information should be
available, we recommend to include it.
("Staff has no capital cost information for freight rail
electrification in the U.S. We have looked at prior studies that
attempted to estimate costs for freight rail electrification in the
South Coast Air Basin. Staff has also looked at passenger
electrification costs in the U.S. to gain some insights on the
order of magnitude of potential costs for freight rail
electrification. Finally, staff does not have access to detailed
operational and maintenance costs for U.S. diesel-electric or other
countries all-electric freight locomotives. Similarly, we do not
have access to that information for all-electric rail
infrastructure.")

Thank you very much for your consideration. Please feel free to
contact us with any questions regarding these comments.

With best regards,
Rolf Neuhaus
Siemens Industry, Inc.