Logo Mass Coastal Railroad

One of the Cape Rail Inc. Companies



Site Navigation:

The Mass Coastal Energy Train


Overview
Benefits
Photos

Mass Coastal's Energy Train™ is an innovative product which facilitates the conversion of solid waste from Cape Cod to electricity.

  • Municipal solid waste from several Cape Cod Towns and the Mass Military Reservation is collected at two Cape Cod MSW Transfer Stations and loaded into modified, covered gondolas.
  • The gondolas are then shipped to Covanta Energy's SEMASS Resource Recovery Facility in Rochester, MA. (A waste-to-energy power plant.)
  • A specialized rotating tipper, which Mass Coastal's purpose-built Energy Train™ cars have been designed to work with as an integrated unit is used to unload the solid waste cars quickly, efficiently, and safely.
  • The SEMASS plant then converts the waste to electric energy that is injected in to the commercial electrical grid.

The Energy Train and SEMASS operation provide a number of benefits to the community:

 

Energy Efficiency:

  • A freight train can move close to four times as much cargo as a truck per gallon of fuel.
  • According to a study by researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, "Economic and institutional solutions that encourage rail use offer the greatest potential for reducing energy and environmental impacts from freight transport."
 

Emissions and Pollution Reduction:

  • The EPA estimates that for every ton-mile, a typical truck emits roughly three times more nitrogen oxides and particulates than a locomotive.
  • Every ton of freight moved by rail instead of highway reduces greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds.
 

Highway Congestion Relief:

  • One railcar can carry the same amount of freight as two to five trucks.
  • The Energy Train™ removes over 12,000 truck trips per year from the Cape's roads and the two Cape Cod Canal highway bridges.

Photos:

(Click on any photo to enlarge.)
 

This web site and all content copyright © 2009, Mass Coastal Railroad, except where noted. All rights reserved.