THE FUTURE OF WHAT’S NEXT

Are “Amtrak Joe’s” Claims About Rail Travel Being Green True?

President Biden claims that rail travel is “environmentally, a lifesaver” and has proposed giving Amtrak $80 billion over eight years to support it as a green travel option. But is it really green if trains still run on diesel?

May 24, 2021 • Orion Donovan-Smith, The Spokesman-Review

{snip}

On my 60-plus-hour journey to Spokane from the nation's capital, I'm riding a diesel-powered Amtrak train with a top speed about half of the Acela's, traveling on 2,659 miles of track mostly owned by freight railroads, and I wanted to know how climate-friendly my choice really was. ... As a whole, Amtrak claims its fleet of diesel and electric trains are 46 percent more energy-efficient than traveling by car and 34 percent more than domestic air travel, based on data from the U.S. Department of Energy.

I reached out to Seth Wynes, a postdoctoral researcher at Concordia University in Montreal, to help me understand how the so-called carbon footprint of my trip compares to flying or driving to Spokane. While several carbon calculators are available online, a range of variables makes estimating the environmental impact of a single trip tricky, said Wynes, whose research focuses on how our individual choices affect climate change.

For instance, driving across the country with a friend has roughly half the carbon footprint of making that same trip alone, because the carbon emissions are split between two people. By that same token, flying on a half-empty airplane — or taking up more space in a first-class seat — makes for a bigger individual climate impact per passenger.

Wynes helped me calculate the carbon footprint of my trip based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's emissions data for Amtrak, car emissions data from the Canadian government's natural resources agency and airline emissions data from the UK government.

{snip}