Nothing, as yet, exists today that will meet this specification. This could be a huge problem in delaying the project.

And, it will be interesting to see what this will bring out in the way of responses from vendors, since it is way out on the edge of the current market needs. I am not sure they can meet this with even a very significantly modified Colorado railcar design for a self propelled unit, at all. They are far more likely to meet their stated performance and environmental goals with a locomotive hauled option, which they seem to have arbitrarily rejected, a priori.

I have another client with an elected official who wants to do (or promise to do) every kind of possible imaginable (real or not) "mitigation", before assessing needs, and I try to steer people away from that approach. I have found it is costly, both on the procurement side and on the political side, because it overpromises a result, without analyzing the relative trade offs in achieving that result.

I have been involved in "technology forcing" policy and regulatory decisions in railroads and trucks, and it has brought us some significant advances in safety, energy, and environmental performance, once the costly prototyping was successfully worked through. But, it is something I would not encourage small start up operators to engage in, on their own, from scratch. Let the big boys do it, then take the benefits and apply them.