01698381

Component

The objective of the paper is to investigate the state of knowledge in embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in rail infrastructure around the world. A literature review identified 23 papers, containing 35 case studies, at least touching on the embodied GHG for different types of rail infrastructure. The study collects and investigates parameters that impact the embodied emissions recorded for the case studies. The parameters include types of rail, LCA method, payback period, data sources, infrastructure construction stage at the time of study and functional unit. Most studies employed process-based LCA for an attributional analysis. Of the 35 case studies collected, 29% was HSR, 22% commuter rail, and 20% was light rail, the remaining 29% includes HRT, Freight, and Metro rail. The embodied emission associated with the case studies ranges from 0.4 to 30,000tCO2e/km. Comparing the embodied emission across the rail types was challenging due to the large variation in the system boundaries, study goals, and inventory method adopted in the publications. This review highlights the need for standardization across the reporting of embodied GHG for rail to better facilitate hot spot detection and engineering and policy decision making.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AR020 Standing Committee on Rail Rolling Stock and Motive Power.

19-06088

English

14p

2019

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Case studies; Environmental impacts; Greenhouse gases; Infrastructure; Literature reviews; Pollutants; Railroads; Standardization

Environment; Railroads

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2019 Paper #19-06088

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 7 2018 9:53AM