The Environmental Benefits of RailRunner Technology

The most immediate advantages of the RailRunner system for shippers and intermodal marketers are economic: RailRunner enables shippers to plug into the rail-based international container shipping system much closer to the source of production, reducing transportation and transloading costs, while preserving the increased value of identity-preserved agriproducts. But the RailRunner system also provides major environmental advantages that are becoming more and more important as concern about climate change grows.

The most important environmental benefit comes from shifting ton-miles of freight traffic from the less fuel efficient highway system to the rail system. By doing so, RailRunner can dramatically reduce the amount of fuel needed to move freight and, thereby, the carbon emissions involved.

RailRunner's unique Terminal Anywhere™ Technology allows shippers to easily shift containerized cargo from road to rail and back. A container chassis can be quickly converted from one mode to the other at relatively low-cost terminals located in the industrial and agricultural heartland, far from the centralized intermodal "hubs." This enables shippers to use rail transport for shipments of 200 to 1,200 miles, traffic that today overwhelmingly goes by truck (83 percent of ton-miles shipped those distances, according to Transearch, Inc.).

The key is that rail transportation is simply far more energy-efficient than shipping by truck. On the rail a gallon of diesel fuel carries a ton of freight 400 miles; on the highway, a gallon of diesel carries a ton just 123 miles. Thus, every ton-mile of freight that moves on rail, rather than road, reduces fuel use by approximately two thirds. This reduces not only cost, but also carbon footprint. For every 100 tons of cargo that moves by rail instead of road for 1,000 miles (100,000 ton-miles), carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by more than 12,500 pounds.

The long-term implications of this are enormous. RailRunner research shows that moving just one percent of the current truck freight in that 200- to-1,200-mile segment from road to rail could reduce annual fuel consumption by more than 100 million gallons (full analysis is HERE). That would translate into a reduction of about 2.5 billion pounds of carbon monoxide emissions a year.

Yet the RailRunner system saves even more than that because it is more efficient than traditional intermodal rail. In many markets throughout the world, standard flat cars are used to carry two 40’ single-stack containers, while the lightweight RailRunner chassis is specifically designed to carry a standard shipping container. The RailRunner chassis is essentially a light-rail freight vehicle. The standard flat car used today to carry two containers apiece weighs about 70,000 pounds. The total tare weight of two RailRunner rail cars – the weight of the transport system, beyond the container and cargo – is just 46,000 pounds (each RailRunner car carries just one container apiece). That includes the two chassis and the two "bogies" that transform the chassis from highway carriers to rail vehicles.

That is 24,000 pounds, or 12 tons, less tare weight than the 70,000-pound rail car. For a 1,000-mile shipment, that means a reduction of 12,000 ton-miles and 670 pounds of carbon emissions for each pair of containers shipped that distance, compared with shipping them on flat cars. Even in North America, where double-stack is utilized, RailRunner offers equivalent or somewhat better energy efficiency.

In addition to being lighter, a RailRunner chassis also provides better aerodynamics. Since it was specifically designed for carrying containers, it allows containers in a RailRunner consist to ride closer together in most configurations, reducing drag when the train is underway.

Beyond fuel efficiency

The use of the RailRunner technology provides additional environmental benefits in reducing traffic congestion, by moving traffic off the highway, particularly in metropolitan areas, where the intermodal terminals are. It is difficult to quantify the impact of this. But an overtaxed roadway system creates localized environmental problems by adding the exhaust of idling vehicles to urban air pollution. It also can add unpredictable delays in freight delivery.

Another environmental factor RailRunner technology addresses is noise pollution. The RailRunner bogie incorporates two features that substantially reduce the noise produced, compared with standard rail cars. The bogie provides automatic radial steering of the rail wheels, reducing friction and the sound of steel-on-steel through curves. The unique airbag suspension further dampens the noise from steel wheel frequencies from the RailRunner rail vehicle in use, as well as protecting the cargo from vibration.

RailRunner offers a better, less expensive, more efficient intermodal system for containerized shipping, expanding the reach of rail-based transport into new markets. But innovative RailRunner technology also delivers substantial and measurable environmental benefits.