Land Freight Lifecycle Impact Calculator

OnTrackNorthAmerica, in partnership with the University of Tennessee’s Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, has gathered data on seventeen lifecycle costs and impacts of building, using, and maintaining highways for truck freight transportation versus railroads and trains. The dataset powers an online tool, the Land Freight Lifecycle Impact Calculator, which allows stakeholders to apply the information to individual projects, systems, and regions. This is the world’s first side-by-side comparison of each land freight mode's lifecycle return on investment. After a year-long peer review, our work was published in the “International Journal of Sustainable Transportation” on October 9^th, 2024.

The transportation sector significantly influences our environment and quality of life. Yet legislators, planners, project developers, and citizens have lacked a comprehensive assessment tool for investment decisions in rail versus highway projects, even while transport infrastructure receives significant public and private-sector capital. Investment in highways to accommodate an overreliance on trucks for moving freight continues unabated, with little grasp of that investment's actual return and costs. Conventional cost-benefit analysis narrowly focuses on only a few factors, excluding most financial, environmental, and social concerns. OnTrackNorthAmerica’s Land Freight Lifecycle Impact Calculator is vital in rethinking our infrastructure and industrial systems for the 21st century and beyond. In light of our pressing need to foster economic prosperity, while minimizing the effects of industrial systems on our vulnerable environments and communities, it is essential to consider all lifecycle costs in investment decisions. Trucks must continue their vital role in our industrial systems; the goal isn't to promote one mode over another. It is time to integrate modes into a balanced, productive system. Unfortunately, the complete costs of transportation infrastructure are seldom estimated or paid. While the direct costs are paid via construction and shipping fees, the indirect, externalized costs are absorbed by society and the natural environment. The data shows that the total lifecycle cost of a highway project is approximately five times the lifecycle cost of a railroad project. Although some legislators and planners are attuned to rail transport’s general efficiencies and benefits, the previous lack of an analytical tool has stifled wise decision-making and sound, sustainable investments. Highway-centric freight transportation has many more impacts than the understandable focus on CO2 emissions. For instance, it takes a 27-mile convoy of trucks on the highway to move the same goods as a one-mile train on its own right-of-way. This truck congestion increases travel time for everyone and affects the entire system's reliability. Consider the difference in light pollution, an increasing problem for wildlife and humans. The goods carried by a mile-long train require 300 tractor-trailers, each with headlights, taillights, and side lights. The train, meanwhile, has two lights on the front of the lead locomotive and a red end-of-train device on the last railcar with reflective tape on the railcar sides. Light pollution is one of the impacts of this large number of trucks, along with their impact on air pollution, congestion, and road wear. Tire wear is now the largest source of microplastics in our oceans. The Land Freight Lifecycle Impact Calculator includes data from prior research conducted in the United States. When impact factors have not been researched in the U.S., overseas research was used. We are working to initiate further primary research to address these geographic gaps and to study other impact factors. All data will be regularly updated and disseminated. This data powers up wiser investment decisions that optimize the use of highways and railroads. Letting go of competition and instituting smart collaboration will benefit all service providers and communities. Adopting a complete lifecycle analysis will significantly enhance progress toward critical environmental, economic, and quality-of-life goals.