NATIONAL STUDY UPDATED: COMPARES FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION BY BARGE, TRUCK AND TRAIN

News Release The National Waterways Foundation March 15, 2012

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Barges
Superior in Terms of Fatalities, Injuries,
Spills
and Environmental/Societal Impacts
 
Arlington,
VA – The National Waterways Foundation (NWF) has released an update of a 2007
study comparing selected societal, environmental, and safety impacts of
utilizing inland river barge transportation to highway and rail transportation.
Titled “A Modal Comparison of Freight Transportation Effects on the General
Public,” the study was conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute’s Center
for Port and Waterways at Texas A&M University.
 
The
February 2012 update incorporates data through 2009, the most recent year for
which complete data is available for all the modes. It:  
 
• Compares
cargo capacity of trucks, trains and inland river barges. One standard 15-barge
river tow has the same capacity as 1,050 trucks and 216 rail cars pulled by six
locomotives.   2005 and 2009 data was the same for this category,
which compared dry cargo and liquid cargo capacity.  
 
• Shows
that barges can now move a ton of cargo 616 miles with a single gallon of
fuel,
while
trains can travel 476 and trucks 150 ton-miles per gallon.  This compares
to 576 miles for barge, 413 miles for rail and 155 miles for truck according to
2005 data.  
 
• Determines
that, after adjusting for the differences in quantity of cargo moved by each
mode, for each member of the public injured in a barge accident, 95.3 are
injured in rail accidents and 1,609.6 are injured in truck accidents. For
fatalities, the rates are 132 trucking fatalities and 18.1 rail fatalities for
every barge related fatality.  This compares to 2005 data of injury rates
of 125.2 in the rail sector and 2,171.5 in the highway sector, and for
fatalities, 227 in the rail sector and 155 in the highway
sector.    
 
Both the rail and
trucking industries have improved their injury and fatality rates since the
previous study, but both are much higher than the inland waterway industry,
which has also continued to improve, although not as dramatically as the other
two modes primarily because of low historical rates.
 
• Looks
at the environmental impacts of the three modes and concludes that inland
waterways transport generates fewer emissions of particulate matter,
hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide than rail or truck on a per ton
mile moved basis.
 
“We are
very proud to release this updated study comparing rail, truck and inland
waterways transport modes.  While we operate in an intermodal network, the
fact is that waterways transportation keeps America and its commerce on the move
with fewer adverse societal impacts than truck or rail,” said Michael Hennessey,
Chairman, National Waterways Foundation.
 
The
mission of the National Waterways Foundation is to develop the intellectual and
factual arguments for an efficient, well-funded and secure inland waterways
system.
 
To see
the report click <A
title=http://www.waterwaysfoundation.org/study/FinalReportTTI.pdf
href="redir.aspx?C=e1c78c7d922f42abb5d444ec6e926db5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.waterwaysfoundation.org%2fstudy%2fFinalReportTTI.pdf"
target=_blank>http://www.waterwaysfoundation.org/study/FinalReportTTI.pdf</A>
 or

 
visit
<A
href="redir.aspx?C=e1c78c7d922f42abb5d444ec6e926db5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org"
target=_blank>www.nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org</A>.
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