(The Association of American Railroads issued the following on June 24.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The nation would save billions of gallons of fuel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by millions of tons if freight was shifted from highways to rail, a Senate panel was told today.
“Greater use of rail transportation offers a simple, cost-effective and immediate way to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions without potentially harming the economy,” Association of American Railroads President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger said during a hearing on climate change and transportation by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
“One way we positively impact the environment is by reducing fuel and energy consumption,” he continued. “Railroads last year were able to move a ton of freight an average of 436 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel. It’s like moving a ton from Boston to Baltimore or Eugene, Ore., to San Francisco on a gallon of fuel.”
Hamberger noted that railroads are almost four times as fuel efficient as trucks, adding: “If just ten percent of the long haul freight moving by truck were shifted to rail, annual fuel savings would exceed one billion gallons.”
He pointed out that greater fuel efficiency brings with it fewer emissions of greenhouse gases. “Every ton-mile of freight that moves by rail instead of highway reduces greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds or more. Shifting 10 percent of the long-haul freight that moves by truck would reduce annual greenhouse emissions by more than 12 million tons.”
Freight railroads, he added, account for just 0.7 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Moving more freight by rail can also help reduce “gridlock on America’s highways, saving commuters time, money and fuel,” Hamberger said. “If 25 percent of freight volume was shifted from trucks to rail by 2026 commuters could save an average of 41 hours a year in commuting time, 79 gallons of fuel and nearly $1,000 in total congestion costs.”
Hamberger said that expanded passenger rail would also be good for the environment. “The average intercity passenger train produces 60 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions per passenger mile than the average automobile and half as much as an airplane.”
Capacity remains a significant challenge to both freight and passenger rail, he said. Hamberger then proposed several policy initiatives to increase the capacity of the rail network.
“First, pass the Freight Rail Infrastructure Capacity Expansion Act (S.1125/H.R. 2116) which provides a 25 percent tax credit for investments in new track, intermodal facilities and other projects that increase capacity. That credit would be available not just to railroads but to any entity that invests in rail capacity expansion.”
He also urged passage of the Short Line Railroad Investment Act “which extends a targeted tax credit for smaller railroads that expired at the end of last year.”
Finally, he called for more public private partnerships in which the public pays for the benefits it receives and railroads pay for the benefits they receive. “The Chicago CREATE project, the Heartland Corridor, and the Alameda Corridor are all examples of such projects in which public and private dollars are leveraged together to produce public benefits that otherwise would not be realized.”
Review Mr. Hamberber’s testimony at www.aar.org/Government_Affairs/testimony/ and click on the entry: “Edward R. Hamberger, President & CEO, AAR: Hearing on Climage Change Impacts on the Transportation Sector.”