VRAN environmental benefits

Moving Freight by Rail vs. Trucks:

Trains produce two-thirds less fuel, pollution, and greenhouse gasses

Shipping by rail instead of trucks reduces pollution (on average) by two thirds, noise by one half, uses only 25% of the fuel and produces only 23% as much greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to fuel consumption.

In 2016, U.S. freight railroads moved a ton of freight an average of 483 miles per gallon (up from 235 miles in 1980). That’s a 99 % improvement, thanks to more efficient locomotives, reduced idling, and improved train-handling techniques.

If just 10 % of the freight that now moves by Class 7 or Class 8 (the largest) trucks moved by rail instead, fuel savings would be around 1.5 billion gallons per year and annual greenhouse gas emissions would fall by approximately 17 million tons — equivalent to removing around 3.2 million cars from the highways for a year, or planting 400 million trees.

Here in Vermont, 47% of greenhouse gasses are produced by transportation (nationally, it's 26%). Nationally, freight railroads produced 0.7% of greenhouse gas emissions, despite hauling 40% of freight ton-miles. Trucks produced 24%, while (cars produce 62% of the transportation sector’s greenhouse gasses).

SOURCE: Association of American Railroads, The Environmental Benefits of Moving Freight by Rail, June 2017, and Vermont Comprehensive Energy Plan, 2016

Moving People by Rail vs. Cars

The U.S. transportation system is 96% petroleum dependent, accounts for 71% of the country’s oil use, and consumes 25% of the world’s net oil output
U.S. motorists’ fuel consumption alone accounts for 11% of the world’s total oil production
Amtrak trains are 30% more fuel-efficient than traveling by car, and 8% more efficient than airlines
Public transportation saves the U.S. 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline every year
Trains are the only public transportation mode that can run on electricity over long distances at high speeds.
New locomotives will be even more green. New standards will cut trains’ particulate emissions by up to 90% and nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 80%.

SOURCE: Energy consumption facts from Amtrak and the Association of Rail Passengers