FORT WORTH, Texas, April 21 (UPI) -- Amtrak plans to operate its Heartland Flyer Oklahoma-Texas service on animal-based biodiesel for the next year, officials say.
The first biodiesel-powered train pulled into Fort Worth, Texas, Tuesday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said. The train does a daily 400-mile round trip between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City, burning 100,000 gallons of fuel a year in the process.
The test is funded by a $274,000 grant from the federal government. Amtrak plans to monitor both the effect of the fuel on the engines and the emissions from biodiesel.
Roy Deitchman, Amtrak vice president for health and safety, said the entire system could switch to biodiesel. Amtrak trains on the Boston-Washington corridor are electric-powered but elsewhere the national passenger rail agency runs diesel engines that drink up 62 million gallons of fuel a year.
Perhaps appropriately, given its route, the Heartland Flyer is running on biodiesel produced from the remains of cattle raised in Texas.
