First European biodiesel passenger train, the Virgin Voyager, on the move in the UK

It's a plane! It's a bird! No it's Richard Branson's latest green transportation move, and it's a biodiesel train, and it uses B20. The local paper likes what it sees.

In England today, a Virgin Voyager ran at 11:27 from London Euston to Llandudno, North Wales. This is Europe's first biodiesel blend train in scheduled passenger service (Virgin's official announcement is here).

Even though the biodiesel-Virgin Voyager is in use as a regular passenger train, this is just a six-month trial right now. Branson, excited as always about reducing petroleum in moving people around, said that if all of Virgin's Voyagers used B20, the fleet CO2 emissions would drop by 14 percent (equivalent to 23,000 cars). If B100 is used, we're talking 100,000 cars.

Special biodiesel fueling stations were set up along the route, and modifications were made to the powerful Cummins' engines that power the Voyager. Virgin is testing out other green fuels (see below) and any profits that Virgin Group's train and plane companies make over the next 10 years will be invested into developing clean fuels.