February 9, 2010
A new study by the Federal Railroad Administration says Class I freight railoads boosted their fuel efficiency by 21.5 percent from 1990 to 2006, aided by adoption of more fuel-efficient locomotives and by packing more freight tonnage into average trainloads.
Fuel efficiency is a measure of how much freight can be hauled with a gallon of fuel. That calculation always favors trains that can put more tonnage behind their power units than trucking competitors.
However, the report indicates railroads improved their fuel efficiency over that period significantly more than trucks. It does not make a direct comparison with efficiency growth in trucking, although it gives figures for trucks over a somewhat different time period.
The FRA says short-haul trucks improved their fuel burn per ton by 11 percent from 1992 to 2002, while long-haul trucking gained about 8 percent.
It suggests that new types of truck engines, mandated to reduce their emissions, could have dampened fuel efficiency in recent years.
Meanwhile, in recent decades trains have increased their double-stacking of intermodal containers and introduced larger sizes for some commodity railcars, adding more tonnage per locomotive.
Click here for the full study. http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/Comparative_Evaluation_Rail_Truck_Fuel_Effi
Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.
Research shows that trucks account for most highway pavement damage; they underpay their road use fees for the amount of pavement and bridge damage they cause according to federal and state highway studies. The National Traffic Safety Administration indicates that heavy trucks were involved in accidents that resulted in 4,808 fatalities - in 2007 alone. As I sit in traffic during my morning and evening commute, I see all these trucks ahead of me and I wonder how much faster we could all get to where we are going if these trucks were not on the roadway during time of peak use. When traffic starts to move I see smoke belching from the truck exhaust and it sickens me to see how much they are polluting the air. I carefully read over the rail/truck fuel study and I wonder how we can stop wasting so much imported oil by using trucks for long hauls of cargo. Trucks can be used for short hauls or local delivery, but we should not have waves of pavement-busting trucks on our interstate highways. We should expand our rail system, and ship by rail for most of the journey, then transfer to truck for the local delivery beyond the rail yard. Maybe if we made trucks pay for all their road costs there would be more incentive to use rail. This won’t happen overnight but we should start the shift now. Trucks are too costly in pavement damage, accidents, lives, traffic congestion, environment, and fuel usage. When you add it all up it makes no sense to continue on this path.
Print
COMMENTS