Comparative Analysis on the Rail and Road Freight Transportation: Air contaminant and greenhouse gas emission

With increasing global concerns for environmental impacts, efforts have been made to encourage a modal shift from road freight to an eco-friendly transport system such as rail freight. In Korea, the government has set master plans for a green transport system but has not taken any substantial action to promote rail freight transport. In developing policies and actions to promote rail freight, quantitative studies on environmental impacts among transportation means are essential. This study examined the air pollutant emissions and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit freight transported by road and rail, respectively. To improve the accuracy, we analyzed emission data and freight transport mileage of rail freight considering diesel locomotives and electric locomotives separately. The results show that unit air pollutant emissions (except SO2) from road freight are about 7~15 times more than those from rail freight. In addition, the GHG emission unit of road freight is about 4 times higher than that of rail freight.