While prices for locomotives are by no means standard or constant, they are generally quite high. For example, in 2010, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company purchased a new diesel-electric locomotive to incorporate into its commuter rail fleet. This locomotive cost the Massachusetts Department of Transportation $114 million. These locomotives are especially efficient and thus more expensive, but this is not an atypical cost for diesel-electric locomotives, which are currently popular in commuter rail fleets.
One hundred percent of freight in the United States is hauled by diesel locomotives, as is about 75 percent of the world's freight. The EPA indicates that locomotives are significant contributors to the nation's air pollution. While governmental organizations are working to limit emissions, the total amount of freight moved by diesel locomotives limits how much progress can be made to cut the total amount of emissions. And while the emissions of locomotives are significantly less than those of freight trucks, the fact remains that they contribute greatly to the country's overall emissions.
With fuel prices rising, the costs for operating locomotives, especially diesel locomotives, rises. Unless a locomotive is pulling its full capacity of freight, it is not acting at full efficiency, a fact that contributes to an additional cost for fuel and the transportation of cargo. While fuel consumption per ton of freight is less for locomotives than it is for freight trucks, even when the locomotives are not pulling to their full capacities, the fact remains that diesel locomotives consume large amounts of fuel.
Locomotives are forced to maintain certain pathways --that is, stay on the tracks -- unless new tracks are constructed. In order to transport freight from one place to another, the freight must be first transported by truck to the train, then it must be transported to a location near its final destination, then it must be transported by truck from the train to its final location. While locomotives pull freight in ways that are efficient and effective, their routes are not easily altered.
