Rail Benefits

  • One rail freight car can carry the equivalent of four truck loads
    • Railroads consume almost one-third less fuel than trucks per ton-mile moved
    • One rail car can carry a ton of cargo 480 miles on one gallon of fuel
    • Railroads are working to reduce emissions of particulate matter by 90% and nitrogen oxide by 80%
    • One train can remove more than 280 trucks (the equivalent of 1,100 cars) from the highways
    • If just 10% of the freight currently moving by truck moved by rail, over 1 billion gallons of fuel would be saved and greenhouse gas emissions would drop by 12 million tons
    • Short line railroads take the equivalent of nearly 33 million truck loads off the highways, saving the country over $1.4 billion annually in highway repair costs