Freight Transport

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Railroads have been a major mode of cross-continent transport since the mid-1800s. In 1869 the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory Summit in Utah to complete the United States’ first transcontinental railroad. That single event launched a generation of rail cargo shipments and passenger travel. Today, the U.S. freight railroad industry operates on almost 145,000 miles (233,000 km) of tracks and carries about $37 billion of freight. Freight trains carry mostly coal (21 percent of their traffic), containers or truck trailers (14 percent), and chemicals (12 percent).

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has cited four benefits to the environment from trains: (1) railroads are more fuel efficient than trucks, and fuel efficiency improves each year; (2) a locomotive emits about one-third the greenhouse gas emissions (gases and particles) as a truck carrying the same tonnage over an equal distance; (3) freight railroads
lessen truck traffic congestion in cities; and (4) rail transport of hazardous chemicals has a better safety record than truck transport of the same chemicals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) additionally stated in its 2006 report Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the U.S. Transportation Sector that, although transportation accounts for more than 30
percent of total greenhouse gases, locomotives contribute only 2 percent to that total.

Despite the advantages cited by the railroad industry, new rails have been difficult to build due to expense and state and local regulations. Many people oppose any new tracks running through their neighborhood. Much of the FRA’s work today centers on improving the safety of existing railroads that cross places that are becoming increasingly populated. These safety precautions include the use of horns in populated areas, slowdown requirements in city limits, and improved train-traffic crossings.

The rail industry has worked to reduce locomotive emissions by attaching new scrubbers to the engine exhaust systems. A scrubber is a device that burns and filters soot from locomotive exhaust. In 2006 Mark Davis spoke for the Union Pacific Railroad by explaining, “It’s [scrubbers] part of our industry’s continued effort in looking for cleaner, more fuel
efficient locomotives. We looked at 14 different filtering technologies and this one [a silicon carbide–based filter] made the most sense and best fit the rail industry’s needs.” Locomotive scrubbers represent an essential first step in building cleaner railroads.

Train fuel efficiency has improved more than 80 percent since 1980 according to railroad transportation company CSX Corporation. The CSX vice president Lisa Mancini praised the railroad industry in 2008, saying, “Freight rail is safe, secure, efficient and sustainable. Through dedication and cooperative investment it is possible to achieve a balance between
freight rail—which drives our nation’s economy—and passenger rail— which carries our nation’s citizens.” In order to fulfill Mancini’s vision, freight transport will likely focus on the following objectives in the near future: (1) further increases in fuel efficiency; (2) equipment for reducing hazardous emissions on current locomotives; (3) development of clean-air locomotives; and (4) design of shutdown systems to reduce fuel waste and emissions when idling.

Freight transport by trucks increased dramatically as the new U.S. interstate highways were built in the 1950s. Trucks now carry 58.2 percent of goods by weight compared with 12 percent carried by train. But trucks and rail lines carry about equal amounts of goods in terms of tonmiles, meaning the miles needed to transport a ton of goods. Trucks tend
to transport materials of much higher per-ton value than trains. Trains carry new cars coast to coast, but they also deliver hundreds of tons of raw materials to industry. These materials—coal, chemicals, solvents, resins— have a lower per-ton value than many of the finished products carried by trucks. Though North American transport depends on trucks, the trucking industry must confront the same issues as personal vehicles regarding emissions. Large diesel trucks contribute up to 40 percent of the nitrous oxides (a greenhouse gas) and as much as 60 percent of all particles emitted by vehicles that end up in the atmosphere. Trucking therefore needs to make a concerted effort toward cleaner alternative fuel vehicles as much, if not more, than personal vehicles.