Union Pacific has announced the rail industry’s largest ever investment in locomotive modernisation.

The railroad company has signed a deal valued at over one billion USD (986.4 million EUR) with Wabtec to modernise 525 of its AC4400 and AC6000 locomotives, as well as 75 Dash-9 locomotives.

Deliveries will begin next year.

Wabtec chosen to modernise 600 Union Pacific locomotives.

© Union Pacific

Wabtec will equip the locomotives with a number of different digital solutions including FDL advantage engine upgrades and modular control architecture.

These updates will help extend the locomotives’ lives and provide a variety of benefits. These include increasing reliability by more than 80% and haulage ability by over 55%.

The modernisation efforts will also improve fuel efficiency by up to 18%, reducing the carbon emissions of each locomotive by 350 tons a year.

In addition, the modernisations support the circular economy as over half a locomotive’s weight of steel – roughly 70,000 tons – will be reused and recycled.