SmartWay Signs On More ARH Short Lines

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
All six Anacostia Rail Holdings Company subsidiaries, including Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (pictured), are now SmartWay partners.

All six Anacostia Rail Holdings Company subsidiaries, including Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (pictured), are now SmartWay partners.

The remaining five of Anacostia Rail Holdings Company’s (ARH) six short line subsidiaries are now certified partners of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay® Transport Partnership program.

They are: Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad, Gulf Coast Switching Co., Louisville & Indiana Railroad, New York & Atlantic Railway, and Northern Lines Railway.

ARH’s Pacific Harbor Line, Inc. (PHL), located near Long Beach, Calif., became a SmartWay program partner in 2014.

EPA launched SmartWay in 2004 to help “companies and organizations achieve their freight supply chain sustainability goals by providing credible tools, data and standards—at no cost—for measuring, benchmarking and improving environmental performance.”

Partner carriers, like railroads, submit their efficiency and air quality data to EPA annually, and it is aggregated and divided into five ranked performance ranges for each freight mode and carrier category, the agency added.

There are more than 3,000 SmartWay partners that include railroad, truck, air and barge carriers as well as shipper, logistics and multimodal companies.

ARH Chairman and CEO Peter Gilbertson

According to ARH Chairman and CEO Peter Gilbertson, PHL was the first railroad in North America to upgrade its fleet of 24 locomotives above Tier 3 emission standards, which contributed to its being named Railway Age’s 2009 Short Line of the Year. Also, PHL signed an agreement with Progress Rail last November for a 3,200-horsepower battery-powered switcher that is slated for delivery this fall.

Since 2011, ARH and its subsidiaries have invested $38 million on lower-emissions locomotives, the short line holding company reported.

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