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As Jean Chretien announced his pending resignation yesterday, and his intent
to ratify Kyoto as his legacy, we at Transport 2000 Atlantic would like to
encourage all sust-mar readers to petition your MPs to support sustainable
transportation as a cornerstone for this model. We support commuter rail
and the movement of more freight by train than by trucks. Some interesting
statistics to consider below:
1. highway maintenance costs (wear and tear)
* one heavy truck ("heavy" = 40 tons) = 9,600 automobiles; "heavy trucks
are estimated to do 95 percent of all damage to highways in the United
States" (Information source: U.S. General Accounting Office)
(RAC's figures are more dismal: one truck = 20,000 cars,
but their stats may be based on a newer generation
of much heavier trucks. The GAO stats are over twenty years old.
You may wish to check RAC's latest study, "Heavy Goods Vehicles:
Infrastructure Costs and Revenue" which is available free.
Phone 613-567-8591)
* current highway construction costs in Nova Scotia (average): $1.15m per
km. (Rail construction costs for proposed Melford spur was $1m per MILE)
2. road safety:
There is" strong evidence" that heavy trucks are disproportionately involved
in fatal highway accidents. (Information source: OECD.)
Driver fatigue will likely increase this disproportion. (See Robert Evans'
article, "84-hour workweeks for truckers imperil us all." Globe & Mail,
August 5, '02)
3. Road congestion:
The U.S. GAO reports substantial economic
productivity losses from increased highway
congestion; for the U.S. as a whole the estimate
is $100 billion annually.
It is estimated (based on Georgia Pacific's own data)
that trucking gypsum to Point Tupper will increase truck traffic
congestion by over 30%. on the Melford-S.T. segment of Route 105.
4. energy requirements:
Depending on variables such as equipment type and
terrain, trains are 1.4 to 9 times more energy efficient
than trucks. (Information source: U.S.Federal Railroad
Administration)
5. Environmental impacts:
5.1 Noise levels: Rail produces 25-50 per cent less noise
than road transport (given equal loads, equal speeds).
(Source: Transport and Environmental Studies of London)
5.2 Emission levels: "For every ton of goods moved one
kilometre, freight rail emits one-third the nitrogen oxide
and carbon monoxide, and one-tenth the volatile organic
compounds and diesel particulates emitted by heavy
trucks." (Information source: U.S. Dept.of Energy)
5.3 Land use:
Two railroad tracks can carry as many people an hour as 16
lanes of highway.
Some 500 kms of the French TVG system could fit into the
area occupied by a single large airport
6. Some external costs comparisons
A German study (European Federation for Transport and Environment)
yielded these figures ($US per thousand passenger-kms)
Train Aircraft Automobile
Air pollution: 1.05 8.54 17.08
Carbon dioxide 2.57 10.76 5.26
Noise 0.35 1.87 1.40
Accidents 1.64 0.23 16.03
TOTALS 5.50 21.41 39.78
(Columns may not add to totals due to rounding)
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