Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC) is pioneering the use of hydrogen locomotives, fuel-efficient trains and alternative fuels to explore ways to minimize its environmental impact.

The Calgary-headquartered company formed out of a merger between Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern Railway is continuing environmental efforts made by both companies and adhering to a single climate target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Canadian Pacific tested hydrogen locomotives and both companies had fuel efficiency initiatives.

“We’re bringing that together but also at a time when we have combined locomotive fleets,” Glen Wilson, assistant vice-president of environmental risk at CPKC, said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada.

Its Climate Mileposts report published in February summarizes the work to reduce carbon emissions from diesel-powered locomotives and find alternatives.

Since being combined, CPKC has approximately 2,200 locomotives in its fleet and has a track network of 20,000 miles in North America, making it one of the largest of its class on the continent.

Biofuel and renewable fuels

CPKC trialled B20 fuel, a blend of up to 20 per cent biodiesel, in 10 locomotives. It fuelled over eight million litres from 2023 to 2024 as year two of a three-year test. “Significant carbon emission reductions” are available through its use, Wilson said.

Additionally, a pilot project in southeast British Columbia is examining the performance of biofuels in winter and how the blend affects locomotive reliability.

Fuel efficiency was critical to Canadian Pacific and Kansas City because fuel carries a significant cost to railway companies, so the effort is being maintained at CPKC. Reducing the number of idling locomotives in a train, particularly if they are returning empty, is one example Wilson provided.

CPKC is analyzing the data from the train handling efforts to educate its locomotive engineers on best practices to further improve fuel efficiency.

As a sign of its continued interest in low-carbon fuels, CPKC plans on strategic sourcing of such fuels and upgrading select infrastructure for potential use.

Tier 4 diesel-electric trains

Starting this year, CPKC will begin receiving 100 Tier 4 Wabtec Evolution Series diesel-electric locomotives to replace end-of-life locomotives. Tier 4 refers to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s highest standard for cutting air pollutants such as diesel particulate matter and nitrous oxides.

The locomotives, which use diesel to generate electricity, are also fuel efficient, Wilson noted. Tests have suggested an approximate 15 per cent fuel efficiency boost per locomotive compared to Tier 1 versions.

Another sustainability benefit of the diesel-electric locomotives is how hydrogen fuel could potentially be injected into the engine combustion chamber, reducing diesel consumption and carbon emissions. Alternatively, the diesel engine and fuel tank can be swapped out with hydrogen fuel cells and batteries.

CPKC’s hydrogen locomotives

CPKC is already taking steps to achieve this with retrofits under its Hydrogen Locomotive Program, which completed over 6,000 miles in freight service testing by the end of 2024.

Hydrogen locomotive production and refuelling facilities were opened in CPKC’s Calgary and Edmonton rail yards last year. The facilities include a one-megawatt electrolyzer. The Calgary electrolyzer is partially powered by a five-megawatt solar power facility at CPKC’s headquarters.

2025 is becoming “a significant year in terms of further investment into the potential of hydrogen locomotives,” Wilson said.

The hydrogen test fleet will be doubled early this year — from two switcher and one line-haul locomotives to four switchers and two line-hauls. Later, CPKC will add four more hydrogen-powered switch locomotives.

Expanding its hydrogen fleet improves CPKC’s ability to assess the fuel source and how it affects the performance of locomotives in various conditions such as winter weather.

“You can start to see when you have fuelling opportunities in Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Golden, and now have enough locomotives to run in and around each of those locations, it really starts to build your ability for testing,” Wilson said.

Tests have shown locomotives powered by hydrogen fuel perform well even when temperatures fall as low as -28 C, he added.

The company recently announced its first hydrogen locomotive entered regular mainline service, hauling bulk freight trains carrying coal in British Columbia.

The climate roadmap for CPKC

In 2026, CPKC plans to progress on its hydrogen ambition with actions like exploring the possibility of deploying hydrogen switcher locomotives at scale and completing a hydrogen viability assessment and deployment planning for its switcher and line-haul fleets.

Eventually the goal of fleet-wide adoption will be examined. This would entail deployment of hydrogen line-haul locomotives and assessing the viability of scaling up the supply chain for hydrogen locomotives.

Hydrogen “gives the pathway all the way to net-zero railway operations,” Wilson said, though it would require extensive scaling-up of the hydrogen supply chain to meet demand from large fleets of locomotives.