Employees at our Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania modernize a locomotive.

Norfolk Southern is committed to reducing our fuel consumption to create value for customers while advancing environmental stewardship and sustainability.

Each year, NS spends over $1 billion on fuel, representing the company’s second largest singular expense behind compensation and benefits. The company is implementing meaningful, comprehensive changes to our operations to achieve a science-based target to manage fuel and reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

"Our success with reducing fuel consumption is due to close collaboration and alignment between team members from throughout Transportation, Mechanical, Engineering, Finance, Sourcing, and IT,” said Jamie Helmer, Director Fuel Efficiency. “Through strategic investments in both technology and infrastructure, we are positioning NS as a leader in lowering emissions.”

“We are committed to building a better planet through comprehensive, year-round initiatives aimed at reducing the fuel consumption of our locomotive fleet,” said Josh Raglin, Chief Sustainability Officer. “Every one of our efforts is specifically designed to achieve our GHG emissions reductions goals as we transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.”

Thanks to four innovative strategies, NS has made substantial progress toward advancing these critical fuel reduction goals, including:

Upgrading our locomotive fleet

NS is right sizing our locomotive fleet to car volumes to successfully reduce fuel consumption and increase network fluidity. We are also aligning train specific horsepower to tonnage in order to optimize the fuel efficiency of each train. As we optimize our fleet across our operations, we are establishing a fluid network. This drives fuel efficiency by reducing stops while simultaneously providing consistent and reliable service to our customers.

In addition, we’re upgrading our locomotive fleet with more fuel-efficient AC traction motors. These modern locomotives can pull more weight with fewer locomotives, creating greater fuel efficiency and improved train handling. Over the past eight years, we’ve converted around 100 locomotives annually. We’re also supporting research into the locomotive of the future through investments in new propulsion systems.

Advances in technology and processes

We are moving our trains on time and achieving additional fuel savings using energy management hardware and software. This technology is EPA-certified for fuel savings of at least 10 percent.

Energy management takes into account the unique train makeup and terrain to develop optimum plans to safely achieve greater fuel efficiency. The technology takes detailed train information such as the consist position, the weight of cars and train length to plan the train’s journey and meet our schedules. In June, around 60 percent of road train miles traveled on energy management auto control, an all-time high.

We are also establishing additional focus on fuel efficiency instructions with the crews and starting to monitor compliance in real-time of those instructions for shutting down of locomotives on a consist that may be overpowered. Coaching the crews on the importance of fuel efficiency technology and processes is on-going and will continue to evolve.

Reducing locomotive idling

By using automatic start and stop technology, we’ve taken noise and emissions out of our communities by substantially reducing the number of locomotives idling when not in use. Additionally, when unoccupied locomotives are not anticipated to be used shortly and weather conditions allow, the locomotives are shut down in compliance with our fuel conservation procedures. Since June 2021, there are thousands of fewer idling locomotive daily hours.

Doubling biofuel consumption

Using environmentally friendly biofuel blends instead of petroleum diesel reduces the amount of GHG emissions per gallon. NS has more than doubled the amount of biofuels we used from 2022-23, with plans to expand our use even more in the coming year. In 2023, we used over 8 million gallons of low-carbon fuels. NS looks to capitalize on opportunities to purchase low-carbon fuels when economically feasible. 

In January, NS released its inaugural Climate Transition Plan (CTP), which is aimed at reducing GHG emissions with a focus on transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The CTP focuses in part on fuel management and consumption, all to help achieve our science-based target of reducing GHG emissions intensity 42% by 2034.

For a more comprehensive look at how NS is working to build a better planet, read our latest “Forging a Better Tomorrow” report and download the highlights here.