PD Editorial: California gets permission to phase out diesel trains

California wants all new passenger vehicles sold in the state to be electric or plug-in electric hybrids by 2035. But cars aren’t the only emitters of greenhouse gases, not by a long shot. Trains burn diesel, so the state wants to put them on a similar timeline.

But just as the state needs federal permission to implement its zero-emission plan for cars, it needs it for trains, and now it has it. The Environmental Protection Agency recently signed off on train rules approved by the state Air Resources Board in April.

California will be the first state to require that trains stop using diesel and other fossil fuels. Passenger and industrial locomotives must be zero-emission by 2030. Freight trains get an extra five years to comply.

That will mean goodbye to the diesel engines that dominate the rail industry and hello to electrified railways.

All of this is contingent on the rules surviving inevitable legal challenges from railroads. There’s also the potential for the EPA to revoke permission if a Republican wins the White House next year.

Diesel engines emit particulate matter and greenhouse gases, choking the air nearby and contributing to global climate change. They also tend to be really loud.

Emissions cause and exacerbate health problems for people who live near the tracks. Historically, that has disproportionately affected lower-income families and communities of color. Living near rail lines also means smelling fumes and listening to loud engines as trains pass. Those are significant drags on quality of life and mental health.

The Air Resources Board estimates that reduced nitrogen oxide emissions and diesel particulate matter after trains go electric will prevent more than 3,000 deaths and save billions of dollars in health costs.

Meanwhile, climate change overshadows everything. Reducing any emissions helps the state reach its greenhouse gas reduction goals.

California isn’t singling out trains. Regulators also will ban the sale of diesel trucks by 2036 and require all trucks to be zero-emissions by 2042.

Switching from diesel trains to electric ones will create significant costs on many operators, including public transit agencies. SMART now has clean diesel engines that reduce particulate emissions, but they’ll still have to transition to zero-emissions. It won’t be cheap.

If the state wants to impose these requirements, it ought to help pay for the transition, at least when it comes to public transit. Public transportation systems have not fully recovered from pandemic ridership declines, and many of them are in precarious financial straits. If they must buy electric trains, they can’t easily pass the cost on to riders without pushing more people back into cars.

There’s precedent for state support. Caltrain, which operates between San Francisco and San Jose, is electrifying its lines right now. It can afford the $2 billion cost thanks in part to money diverted from the state’s over-budget and overdue high-speed rail project, which also will run on electricity.

California is at the forefront of fighting climate change nationally and globally not because it simply says, “No more greenhouse gases,” but because it develops sensible policies and timelines that target individual industries and sectors. Real change requires all hands on deck.

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