Last week's trip to Chicago wasn't all play and no work. The Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders gathered for their annual conference in the city, and transportation company CSX, one of the sponsors of the three-day event, invited some members of the online media to the Windy City to tour an eco-friendly locomotive they've developed, to learn more about what the company as a whole is doing to reduce their environmental footprint, and to attend final day of the conference.

Rather than diving straight into the locomotive tour (tune in for that tomorrow!), I'm going to make you work for it first since understanding the significance of freight rail is paramount to appreciating the forward thinking of these CSX initiatives.

Freight rail and Chicago
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 freight trains and 700 passenger trains (with a total of about 37,500 freight cars) pass through Chicago every day, making it the largest rail hub in the U.S. Chicago's railroads operated independently from one another until a major snowstorm in 2000 buried the city and it took approximately four months to dig themselves out of the mess. Such an extensive hold-up made it apparent that the railroads needed to be connected from that point on, and a central office was established.

A $1.5-billion project known as CREATE has been established to help prepare the city for the flux in the freight rail industry - expected to double in the next 20 years - and allows for the city and state to take advantage of the prospective 17,000 jobs and $2 billion in annual economic production the growth is expected to create.

Freight rail and the environment
You may find it hard to believe, but a train can transport one tonne of goods for over 400 miles on one gallon of gas. Yes, you read that correctly: a train is more fuel efficient than the Prius you've proudly parked in your driveway. Rail transport can also take more than 200 trucks off of the highway. Obviously you probably aren't expecting to see a freight train pull up in front of your local Wal-Mart with a product delivery. That's where intermodal transport come in, a method that involves multiple forms of transportation used to haul freight. In the case of rail travel, a train will share transporting duties with trucks. An intermodal rail yard, such as the one I visited in Chicago, will see massive straddle cranes lift one box from a flat-bed truck approximately every two minutes and load it onto a train. These are (not surprisingly) known as "lifts," and this particular yard is responsible for completing 250,000 of them each year.

EPA figures suggest that using rail transport emits three times less nitrogen oxide and particulate per ton-miles than trucks, and that redirecting just 10 per cent of long-haul freight to rail from truck to train could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12 million tonnes.

Typically the consumer goods transported have been limited to non-perishable items, however technology is constantly improving and a CSX freight train recently carried a load of apples from Washington state to New York.

Freight rail and you
The freight being carried on these trains ranges in everything from the brand new 42-inch Plasma television set you just mounted on your living room wall to the pair of jeans you picked up on sale last week. Goods relating to alternative fuel and energy, such as biofuels and wind turbines are also hauled via rail transport. And yes, as of lately, fresh produce is hitting the tracks. We often encourage purchasing locally-made products when possible, but obviously recognize that not every consumer good will be available through a local producer. In that case, finding the most environmentally-conscious method of shipping is key. As one CSX representative pointed out, "When products come fomr overseas and offshore, someone has to make it work domestically."

Continuous developments may mean the items we purchase every day have less of an environmental impact in the future thanks to rail transport.

» CSX