More Good Reasons to Use Rail

It may be seem unbelievable, but a train is able to transport one ton of goods for over 400 miles using only one gallon of gas. Yes, you read that correctly! A train is more fuel efficient than any hybrid vehicle on the market. Rail transport also makes it possible to take more than 200 trucks off of the highway.

Obviously, you would not see a freight train pull up in front of your local store with a product delivery. That's where intermodal transport comes in. Intermodal transport is a method that involves multiple forms of transportation used to haul freight. In the case of rail travel, a train will share transporting duties with trucks; intermodal rail yards use massive straddle cranes to lift boxes from a flat-bed truck and load it onto a train.

The EPA suggests that using rail transport emits three times less nitrogen oxide and particulate per ton-miles than trucks, and that redirecting just 10 percent of long-haul freight to rail from truck to train could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12 million tons.