Growing Green
The most fuel-efficient engine on the road doesn’t use the road
at all.
America is facing an intrastructure crisis. Our roads can’t handle all of the traffic. But there are safe, affordable, green solutions if we invest wisely. In the Southeast, million of tons of freight move in single-driver trucks along a north-south route. What if instead we could move more of this freight by rail?
Less Fuel Consumption
Norfolk Southern locomotives can haul 280 truckloads in a single train and have the energy to move a ton of freight 436 miles on just one gallon of fuel. That’s almost four times as far as the freight could move by truck. The Crescent Corridor will reduce fuel consumption by 170 million gallons per year.
Cleaner Air
Greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to fuel consumption. Because railroads are nearly four times more fuel efficient than trucks on an ton-mile basis, railroads have a smaller carbon footprint. The Crescent Corridor will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.9 million tons annually.
In fact, despite their visibility to the local community, intermodal yards are typically a small regional source of emissions. Because these facilities are, however, an entry point to the freight supply chain and impact the local community where sited, they have gained the interest of regulators. Regulations have focused on reducing emission rates from equipment currently used on these sites through retrofit and replacement programs. Facility design and improved operations may have an equal impact on the sites’ emission profiles through reduced activity for the same freight throughput. www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/conference/ei17/session11/lindhjem.pdf
Less Traffic on the Highway
A train can take the load of 280 trucks – the equivalent of 1,100 cars – off the highway. Shifting freight to the Crescent Corridor will create additional capacity for five million more cars on interstate highways.
Faster Commutes and Safer Roads
Greater use of freight rail networks can reduce highway congesion and the need for highway maintenance as well as pressure to build costly new roadways. Gridlock today costs the nation an estimated $80 billion in wasted travel time (4.2 billion hours) and wasted fuel (2.9 billion gallons). The Crescent Corridor will save $123 million a year by reducing highway delays.