Riding the Rails to Sustainability
Article

Riding the Rails to Sustainability

Annika Zawadzki, Felix Reszewski, Mirko Pahl, Henning Schierholz, Dustin Burke, Bruno Vasconcellos and Maeyce Toppan
Boston Consulting Group, 2022
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Editorial Rating

8

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Recommendation

When’s the last time you took a train ride? Your answer likely depends on where in the world you’re located. If you’re in a major Asian city, there’s a decent chance you rode the train to work this morning. If you’re in the United States, the last time you boarded a train was probably for a novelty ride with the kids, or perhaps part of your travel plans in a different country. Still, a good deal of the consumer goods in your local stores probably made part of their journey by train. Regardless of your current thoughts about trains, this Boston Consulting Group report suggests they’ll play a big role in a sustainable future.

Summary

Rail is the best option to reduce global transport emissions and costs, but it’s losing share to trucking and other container-based transport methods. 

A major share of global emissions comes from the transport of goods and people, so any serious attempt at fighting global warming will have to include more energy-efficient transportation. The world is moving toward container-based intermodal transport, which means more trucks on the road and less bulk shipping by rail. People are also committed to their cars, perhaps in part because the COVID-19 pandemic scared them away from public transport. This is unfortunate, because rail is one of the more energy-efficient means of transport.

Rail only eats up 3% of the energy used in transport, despite carrying about 9% of the passengers and 7% of the freight. Transporting a person in a car uses about four times the emissions as rail travel does, and transporting freight by rail uses 80% less energy...

About the Authors

Annika Zawadzki, Felix Reszewski, Mirko Pahl, Henning Schierholz, Dustin Burke, Bruno Vasconcellos and Maeyce Toppan are professionals with the Boston Consulting Group.

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