The new zero-emission train, known as Zemu, will run through an area that has long suffered from poor air quality. Will it be the start of a clean energy rail movement in the US?

smth smth trying everything before doing the right thing

The new technology will make Zemu the first hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions passenger train in North America to meet Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requirements when it goes into service early next year.

Developing a lightweight frame that passed FRA standards is a promising accomplishment because it provides a zero-emission alternative to the expensive overhead electrification that’s common in Europe, but is prohibited by the FRA on freight lines in the US. “Once you take that vehicle and you add hydrogen to it, you make it possible to have zero emission technology on the same corridors where Union Pacific and NSF run,” Killpack said. “That’s what’s really crazy and cool about this”.

Incredible, freight trains are prohibited from running on electricity in the empire?

In order for these small but promising steps to be economically sustainable in the long run, though, huge investment will need to be made to expand the infrastructure. “You’ve got to be selling at least hundreds [of trains] to start to get some scale economies and bring those costs down,” said Lewis Fulton, the Energy Futures Program director at UC Davis’s Institute for Transportation Studies.

(fucking bullshit)