Train travel has often been extolled as a more relaxing and enjoyable form of transportation than driving or flying. Trains have been enjoying a renaissance in the public eye for more than just their amenities, however.
Studies have shown that rail is hands-down the greenest way to travel (though buses come close). This will continue to be the fact no matter how much the energy efficiency of automobiles and aircraft improves, for the following reasons:
1. Steel wheels on steel rails are inherently more efficient than rubber tires on a road because steel-on-steel generates less resistance to forward momentum, and one train wheel-set can bear a good deal more weight than a car or truck wheel-set. Although a single locomotive uses more energy per mile than a single car or truck engine, one locomotive can haul several times more weight
than one car or truck because one locomotive can pull upwards of 50 railcars.
2. The impact of an airplane’s emissions on atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and certain other pollutants is magnified by the fact that the plane travels at high altitudes.
3. Rail is the only mode with the proven ability to haul heavy loads over long distances using only electric power, provided by overhead wires (known as catenary) or by a third rail. The emissions caused by the operations of an electrified railroad can be contained at the power plant, and theoretically electricity can be produced entirely by renewable sources.
4. Even diesel-hauled Amtrak trains (which are shorter, and hence carry fewer passengers per locomotive, than most 20th-century American passenger trains) use 30% less energy per passenger-mile (one passenger traveling one mile) than cars and 20% less than airplanes.
5. Railroads conserve land compared to highways: one double-track railroad can carry up to 10 times the number of people per hour as a two-lane road.
6. Because they operate on fixed lines, trains are uniquely capable of fostering smart growth. Neighborhoods built — and revitalized — around train stations often feature restaurants, shops and other businesses mixed in with residential buildings, which can be apartment or condo buildings, townhomes or closely-spaced detached homes. This creates the kind of walkable communities that were common prior to the automobile age, when small towns grew up around train depots and streetcar lines guided the growth of cities. Dependence on autos, on the other hand, leads to more roads and people living farther away from commercial centers, which in turn increases car dependence, and so on in a vicious cycle. This is true regardless of what fuel the automobile uses, even if it is electricity.
If U.S. leaders are serious about reducing our dependence on oil, lowering carbon emissions, revitalizing the economy and our neighborhoods, and giving Americans greater mobility and more travel choices, then the level of investment in expanding and improving the country’s passenger train network should be ramped up. No industrialized country in the world developed its rail system without significant funding and policy guidance from the government, and nowhere have passenger train systems been able to cover all their costs through passenger revenues alone.
The American public has already demonstrated that it wants more and better trains. Now it’s up to our elected leaders to make the right investments, so that many generations of Americans will benefit from fast, frequent, reliable and affordable train service. Connecting people with local transit, airports, taxis and car sharing in a seamless network would make it possible for most Americans to lead their lives independently from a car — which will become increasingly necessary as the population grows and resource supplies are constrained.
Malcolm Kenton is Transportation Assistant with the National Association of Railroad Passengers, America’s oldest and largest nonprofit working to expand and improve passenger train service throughout the nation. Learn more at www.narprail.org.
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