Norfolk Southern to Cut Carbon 10 Percent in Five Years

Norfolk Southern Railway says it will cut greenhouse gas emissions in its operations 10 percent by 2014 from 2009 levels through fuel-saving technology and efficiency improvements.

The cuts will be on a revenue ton-mile basis, and it will measure progress against comparable freight volume.

NS announced the environmental goal days before activating a new double-stack intermodal corridor that will help it shrink its carbon-emissions footprint.

The carrier will open its Heartland Corridor stacktrain route on Sept. 9, allowing it to move containers two-high for the first time through tunnels in Virginia and West Virginia for trains moving between ocean terminals around Norfolk and the big Midwest hubs at Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago.

Intermodal corridor news from JOC:
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That will quickly let NS eliminate some train moves compared with today’s single-stack route through those tunnels or circuitous stacktrain routes that take one to two days longer either by routing them through Pennsylvania or Tennessee before angling toward Chicago.

It is also developing a second major stack route that is even longer than Heartland’s 1,031 miles. Its Crescent Corridor now under development runs from New Orleans and Memphis, Tenn., up an arc through western Virginia and eventually into New York.

CSX Transportation, NS rival in the eastern U.S., is developing its own corridor to eliminate clearance obstructions along its mid-Atlantic, north-south lane and connect that traffic to a route that runs east-west from Baltimore to a major new intermodal hub it will open soon near Toledo, Ohio.

Blair Wimbush, NS vice president for real estate and the railroad’s corporate sustainability officer, said setting its emission-reduction goal “is an important step toward fulfillment of Norfolk Southern's objective to achieve industry leadership in environmentally responsible business practices. Disclosing our carbon footprint last year was the first step. Now, we move forward with an aggressive yet realistic goal, and we have the tools to measure our progress toward attaining it."