Fun Fact I Learned Today

[Kevy Baby]

A modern diesel-electric locomotive can move one ton of freight an average of 202 miles n a gallon of diesel fuel. A modern 18-wheeler truck can only move a ton of freight 59 miles on the same gallon.



Courtesy of Modern Marvels on the History Channel.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

A modern diesel-electric locomotive can move one ton of freight an average of 202 miles n a gallon of diesel fuel. A modern 18-wheeler truck can only move a ton of freight 59 miles on the same gallon.

Of course what that doesn't account for is that trucks are still needed to get that ton of freight to and from the train, plus whatever other energy and monetary costs are involved with supporting the loading and unloading of the freight from the train.

Not that that invalidates the efficiencies of trains, but it's important to keep in mind that comparing raw stats like that is not necessarily and accurate way to judge two different options. There's a balance point where the overhead of trains outweighs the raw fuel savings over trucks.