Freight trains help ease congestion. Shifting freight from trucks to rails helps improve America's productivity, eases traffic flow and helps preserve our highway infrastructure.
Understanding the hidden costs of congestion
Highway congestion has gotten worse in many ways since 1982. Trips take longer and travel times are unreliable. Congestion disturbs more of each day, affects weekend travel and touches rural areas. According the 2009 Urban Mobility Report, congestion caused Americans to waste 4.2 billion hours and to burn an extra 2.8 billion gallons of fuel while stuck in traffic last year. That is an increase of more than 50% over the last decade.
Taking trucks off the road is a smart transportation plan
Because a freight train can take 280 trucks off the road, railroads help fight highway gridlock. Shifting freight from trucks to rail also slows the wear and tear caused by truck traffic. Moving more by train helps reduce the pressure to build costly new roads and helps cut the cost of maintaining the highways. AASHTO estimated that if all rail freight were shifted to trucks, it would cost federal, state and local transportation agencies an extra $128 billion for highway improvements.
