According to the Federal Rail Administration ( www.fra.dot.gov), in 2000, the entire United States railroad system encompassed 660 railroads, 220,000 miles of track, 20,000 freight locomotives, 8,800 passenger locomotives/coaches, 1,300,000 freight cars, and 265,000 employees. The freight railroad industry's share of the ton-miles of intercity freight grew from less than 38 percent in 1990 to more than 40 percent in 2002. In 2006, the major rail in the US carried commodities (in terms of tonmiles) included coal (35 percent), intermodal traffic (trailers and containers on flat cars) (13 percent), transportation equipment (10 percent), and farm products (predominantly grain and soybeans) (9 percent), and chemical products (9 percent). The fastest growing segment of rail traffic has been intermodal traffic, with the number of trailers and containers increasing substantially from an average of 3.4 million loadings in the early 1980's, when doublestack container trains were introduced, to 12.3 million in 2006. The highest traffic corridor for intermodal traffic is between California and Illinois reflecting the land portion of container shipments of goods moved from Asia to the U.S. *February 2008 Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Policy & Communications * Source: Association of American Railroads, “Railroad Facts” Source: Association of American Railroads, “Railroad Facts” With the opening of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming in the late 1970s, U.S. coal shipments have grown dramatically from 4.8 million carloads to 8.4 million carloads (2006) as the railroads delivered low sulfur coal to help electric utilities achieve Clean Air Standards. The largest rail coal movements are from the Powder River Basin to generating plants in Illinois, Missouri, and Texas. Rail represents a critical component of our goods movement system in the US, but also a significant challenge to transition in terms of moving away from a carbon-based economy model of rail (rail itself running on alternatives to polluting diesel and renewable electrification). Rail today is still very polluting and carries a significant amount of product that is also polluting. The dirty footprint of rail in the freight system is ingrained and therefore will require aggressive policy leadership from communities to the White House. But the system for transportation/rail funding is still bent on old system appropriations where industry drives research and development and actual funding priorities. This system must change to reflect a new, outcome based approach focused n a achieving a new 2050 rail system in the US not driven by a carbon economy, and steeply founded on renewable electrification and new mobility needs for a globalized national economy. In 2008 and 2009 as CCP acquires more funding, we’ll be looking to build the best clearinghouse for all things when it comes to the new 2050 alternative vision for rail – where freight is moved cleanly and clean products replace pollution-intensive products.
According to the 2002 FRA report “2002 Five-Year Strategic Plan” – most recently adopted plan for US rail - the Next Generation High-Speed Rail Technology Demonstration Program (“Next Generation Program”) seeks to demonstrate that the public will welcome “incrementally upgraded highspeed rail passenger service which provides air- or road-competitive door-to-door trip times between major city pairs with reliable, high quality, cost-effective service. The Next Generation Program—based on partnerships with suppliers of technology, railroads, and State governments—will be providing a real-world environment for the application of these technologies, preparing the way for a smooth introduction when States are ready to implement their systems, and ensuring that duplication of efforts is minimized. The States that are already implementing HSR incremental upgrade programs are targeting service speeds of 110 to 125 miles per hour for the near future, primarily on existing track also used for freight. CCP and EndOil say the time for demonstrating public support for such systems is over. Now is the time to determine how to restructure rail funding and national implementation so that the country can immediately benefit from a new high-speed, green rail system, for both mass transit as well as freight carrying, to address rail’s contributions to climate impacts from diesel pollution, but also to solve our growing needs for a new economic engine and non-carbon economy.
FRA was directed by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century to initiate a competition to plan and build a magnetic levitation (maglev) project somewhere in the United States. The authorized Federal funding consists of $55 million for preconstruction planning to identify the most promising project, and up to $950 million for final engineering and construction of the guideway of the one selected project. Of the selected project’s total cost, the Federal Government would provide up to $950 million of the funding, and the State or local governments or private entities would provide one-third. To be eligible for construction funding, each project must demonstrate that operating revenues will exceed operating costs, Once again – we should be looking to site actual MAGLEV freight projects – LA or the Bay Area are perfectly suited for such a step forward. We’ll be watching and educating communities about real, vital solutions and opportunities to become actively engaged in project planning discussions on a local level. Read More
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- Health costs to Californians, so far this year, of port related pollution in California.
The Ports of LA Long Beach Clean Air Action Plan passed in November 2006, and 1500 clean trucks service the ports.
Port Pollution Facts
- In Long Beach, 20% of children under 17 have been diagnosed with asthma - nearly twice the national average.
- $67 million: The cost of respiratory problems associated with ports in CA.
- Diesel Exhaust is responsible for 84% of the cancer risk from air pollution in the Southern California Air Basin.
- $19 BILLION: Cost on health system due to port pollution. average.
- Each day the Port of LA emits over 30 tons of NOx, while a half a million cars emits less than 24 tons and the average power plant emits less than 5 tons.
- 2,400 - Estimated number of premature deaths caused by diesel emissions.
- 800,000: Number of children that pollution reduction could save from lung disease.
- Each day the Port of Los Angeles emits over 30 tons of NOx, while a half a million cars emits less than 24 tons and the average power plant emits less than 5 tons.
Rail
