Commuter Cadillacs : Metrolink Unveils First Two ‘Locomos’ With Retuned Engines to Cut Pollution

As the floor throbbed beneath their feet, technicians slithered through the guts of the new periwinkle-and-white Metrolink locomotive, inspecting nests of wires under a control panel and adjusting a bank of valves dancing wildly atop its idling, 3,000 horsepower diesel motor.

“These are the Cadillacs of locomotives,” Field Service Engineer William H. (Butch) Erwin said over the rhythmic rumble and squeal of the motor. “There is a little more insulation; it is a little quieter. The interior is more plush; the floors are softer and so are the seats.”

More important, the General Motors F59PH locomotive has been tuned so that while burning a special low-sulfur fuel it can crank out more power per pound of pollution than any other diesel-electric engine in production.

The arrival last Sunday of the first two such “locomos”--joining a growing fleet of more than a dozen new double-deck passenger coaches--is another milestone for the Metrolink commuter train service, scheduled to start Oct. 26.

Air pollution is a serious concern for the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, the five-county agency that will operate Metrolink. When its first three lines make their debut, they may slightly relieve the region’s congestion but they also will add to the region’s smog.

Scientists found that a diesel-electric commuter train, by taking cars off the road, would reduce most kinds of pollution. The only exception would be oxides of nitrogen, a primary smog component; at first, they figure, the trains may create 2.15 more tons a day of that pollutant than all of the cars it would take off the road.

That would represent a 0.18% increase in the 1,208 tons of nitrogen oxides routinely dumped into Southern California skies each day. The pollutant, known as NOx for short, gives smog its bourbon color and combines with hydrocarbons in the atmosphere to create ozone.

Nonetheless, that finding set agency engineers off to work with GM on slashing all emissions from its diesel-electric locomotives and eventually converting their motors to run on clean-burning natural gas.

“The SCRRA has worked closely with General Motors to design the lowest emission passenger locomotive in use in the nation,” said Richard Stanger, the agency’s executive director. “Our locomotive is 40% cleaner than the typical passenger locomotive. The goal is to achieve a total (nitrogen oxides) reduction of 80% by 1996 and ultimately to virtually eliminate NOx emissions.”

Clean-air advocates welcomed the modified locomotives, but reaffirmed their demand that the agency set a date to convert to pollution-free electric locomotives--and stick with it.

“We’re giving them the benefit of the doubt that these will be converted to electricity in a timely manner,” said Tom Soto, president of Coalition for Clean Air. “My concern with diesels is . . . where is the commitment for full electrification, and in what year?”

The new locomotives being tested in Metrolink’s Midway Yard will emit 1.4 additional tons a day, compared to the private cars that it is expected to replace. By next year, engineers hope to cut excess emissions to 1.14 tons per day by installing low-temperature after-cooling.

Joanna Capelle, an agency consultant, could not describe that process, but she said it cost the railroad and the South Coast Air Quality Management District $200,000 to develop and will result in “the cleanest possible diesel (locomotive) with the best possible performance.”

In an antipollution plan proposed by staff but not yet adopted by the agency’s board, Metrolink would convert its diesel-electric locomotives to natural-gas engines in 1996. That would finally result in a net savings in all pollution, including a savings of about 1,220 pounds of nitrogen oxides a day.

The agency is studying the possibility of eventually replacing its diesel locomotives with electric models powered by overhead wires or internal fuel cells. Fuel cells use a virtually pollution-free chemical reaction to generate heat and electricity by breaking down hydrogen-rich fuels such as natural gas.

Electrified railroads would essentially eliminate air pollution as a problem for Metrolink. Generating enough electricity in a stationary power plant to operate the entire commuter train network would produce only about 40 pounds of nitrogen oxides a day.

NEXT STEP

Now that locomotives and passenger coaches for the Metrolink commuter-train system are arriving from manufacturers, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority is scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. today at Union Station to set fares for the service. After telephone surveys of potential customers--as well as negotiations with major downtown employers, some of which may subsidize fares for their workers--SCRRA is proposing a base fare of $2.50 each way with another $1 each time a passenger crosses between specified zones. Metrolink officials consider the fare a compromise between short- and long-distance riders on its lines, which at first will connect Moorpark in Ventura County, the Santa Clarita Valley and Pomona to Union Station. From there, passengers will be able to make bus and, eventually, subway connections to the Civic Center and financial district.