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TRUCKS vs. TRAINS * USA - Opinion: Intermodal Isn’t ‘Greener’ Than Trucks
New York,NY,USA -Transport Topics, by John Burton -19 Oct 2009: a -- You can’t watch television these days without hearing some railroad companydvertising the “green” benefits of moving freight from the road to rail. The most often heard is the claim by one major railroad that “one ton of freight can be moved 436 miles on one gallon of fuel.” Another large railroad boasts a 470-mile claim in its 2008 Annual Report... At first glance, these numbers seem to indicate there is no way trucking can compete and intermodal has to be the future for our efforts to go green. However, it is important that we dig deeper and look at “environmentally friendly” from a broader perspective... Besides, intermodal still requires trucks... Drayage is usually required at both ends of the journey, adding truck miles to get the freight to market. For example, a truckload from Columbus, Ind., to Reno, Nev., will travel about 2,100 miles over the road. However, an intermodal move likely will travel 240 miles on the road to Chicago, 2,415 miles on rails to Stockton, Calif., and 155 miles on the road back to Reno — a 34% increase to 2,810 total miles... Using the railroad’s own carbon calculation methodology, trucks produce 270% more carbon output. But using our real-world example, the carbon differential for the total move is only about 65% higher... However, this still isn’t the whole story... (Photo from traingeek.ca: Vanceboro Maine)
Labels: trucks vs trains
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