AccScience Publishing / EER / Volume 1 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.36922/eer.3470
Submit to EER
Cite this article
196
Download
1688
Views
Journal Browser
Volume | Year
Issue
Search
Forthcoming Issue
Current Issue
View All
News and Announcements
View All
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Impacts of mode shift on well-to-wheel emissions from inter-capital transport in Australia – Part I: Road and rail transport

Robin Smit1,2* ,  Paul Graeme Boulter3
Show Less
1 Transport Energy/Emission Research (TER), Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
2 Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
3 EMM Consulting, St. Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
EER 2024, 1(1), 3470 https://doi.org/10.36922/eer.3470
Submitted: 23 April 2024 | Accepted: 27 June 2024 | Published: 26 July 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Download PDF
Cite
XML
Abstract

Achieving mode shift in the transport sector will help Australia to meet its target for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, although robust data on its effectiveness have previously been limited. This analysis provides valuable new information on mode shift impacts on emissions in Australia and demonstrates some recently developed assessment tools. The analysis considers the potential of a shift from road to rail to reduce well-to-wheel (WTW) emissions (as CO2-equivalents, CO2-e) in 2019, 2030, and 2050, specifically for a case study involving the transport of passengers and freight between Brisbane and Melbourne. The analysis provides emission intensities (EIs) in grams per passenger-km (g/pkm) and grams per tonne-km (g/tkm), as well as annualized emissions, and considers the variability and uncertainty in the estimates using a probabilistic approach. The transfer of passengers and freight from road to rail has the potential to significantly reduce emissions. Electric rail delivers the largest and least uncertain emission reductions. For passenger transport, the EI of electric rail (12 g CO2-e/pkm in 2030; 6.5 g CO2-e/pkm in 2050) is considerably lower than that of road transport (143.2 g CO2-e/pkm in 2030; 58.9 g CO2-e/pkm in 2050), and the uncertainty is lower. For freight transport, the EI of electric rail (8.6 g CO2-e/tkm in 2030; 5.0 CO2-e/tkm in 2050) is also substantially lower than that for road transport (48.3 g CO2-e/tkm in 2030; 29.5 g CO2-e/tkm in 2050). The EI for diesel rail freight (27.0 g CO2-e/tkm in 2030; 26.1 g CO2-e/tkm in 2050) is around half of the value for road transport in 2030, but road transport becomes more competitive by 2050. The complete transfer of passengers between Brisbane and Melbourne from road to electric rail would reduce annual WTW emissions for passenger transport by 75 – 90%, depending on the year. The complete transfer of freight from road to diesel rail would reduce annual emissions by 45% in 2019 and 2030 and by 10% in 2050. The study and tools will help researchers, policymakers, transport/land-use planners, and network operators to quantify, design, and implement mode shift measures to reduce emissions.

Keywords
Emissions
Mode
Shift
Passenger
Freight
Road
Rail
Well-to-wheel
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
References
  1. DISER. National Inventory Report-2019. The Australian Government Submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Australian National Greenhouse Accounts. Vol. 1. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources; 2021.

 

  1. ICAO. CORSIA Central Registry (CCR): Information and Data for Transparency-PART II: Total CO2 Emissions for 2019 Aggregated for all Aeroplane Operators on each State Pair. International Civil Aviation Organization; 2022. Available from: https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/ corsia/documents/ccr%20info%20data%20transparency_ partii_oct2022.pdf [Last accessed on 2024 Feb 16].

 

  1. BITRE. Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics- Yearbook; 2022. Canberra: Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics.

 

  1. DCCEEW. Australia’s Emissions Projections 2022; 2022. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

 

  1. Smit R. An independent and detailed assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, fuel use, electricity and energy consumption from Australian road transport in 2019 and 2050. Air Qual Clim Change. 2023;57(2):30-41.

 

  1. Dalkmann H, Brannigan C. Transport and Climate Change. Module 5e: Sustainable Transport: A Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities. Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit; 2007. Available from: https://city2030.org.ua/sites/default/files/documents/ giz_sutp_sb5e_transport-and-climate-change_eN.pdf [Last accessed on 2023 Nov 10].

 

  1. CCA. Shifting Gear: The Path to Cleaner Transport. Climate Council of Australia; 2023. Available from: https://www. climatecouncil.org.au/resources/shifting-gear-the-path-to-cleaner-transport [Last accessed on 2023 Nov 10].

 

  1. Smit R, Kennedy DW. Greenhouse gas emissions performance of electric and fossil-fueled passenger vehicles with uncertainty estimates using a probabilistic life-cycle assessment. Sustainability. 2022;14(6):3444. doi: 10.3390/su14063444

 

  1. Smit R, Helmers E, Schwingshackl M, Opetnik M, Kennedy D. Greenhouse gas emissions performance of electric, hydrogen and fossil-fuelled freight trucks with uncertainty estimates using a probabilistic life-cycle assessment (pLCA). Sustainability. 2024;16(2):762. doi: 10.3390/su16020762

 

  1. ARTC. Inland Rail Programme Business Case. Australian Rail Track Corporation; 2015. Available from: https://inlandrail. com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/business-case-2015. pdf [Last accessed on 2023 Nov 10].

 

  1. McCleese DL, LaPuma PT. Using Monte Carlo simulation in life cycle assessment for electric and internal combustion vehicles. Int J Life Cycle Assess. 2002;7:230-236. doi: 10.1007/BF02978878

 

  1. Bastani P, Heywood JB, Hope C. Fuel use and CO2 emissions under uncertainty from light-duty vehicles in the U.S. to 2050. J Energy Resour Technol. 2012;134:42202. doi: 10.1115/1.4007485

 

  1. Cullen AC, Frey HC. Probabilistic Techniques in Exposure Assessment, Society of Risk Analysis. Berlin, Germany: Springer Science and Business Media; 1999.

 

  1. Madachy RJ. Introduction to Statistics of Simulation, Software Process Dynamics. Piscataway, NJ, USA: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.; 2008.

 

  1. Hastie T, Tibshirani R, Friedman J. The Elements of Statistical Learning. 2nd ed. Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer; 2017.

 

  1. TER. Net Zero Vehicle Emission Model (n0vem). Transport Energy/Emission Research; 2023. Available from: https:// www.transport-e-research.com/software-novem [Last accessed on 2023 Nov 20].

 

  1. ABS. Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia, 12 Months Ended 30 June 2018. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics; 2019.

 

  1. Andersson E, Lukaszewicz P. Energy Consumption and Related Air Pollution for Scandinavian Electric Passenger Trains. Report KTH/AVE 2006:46. Stockholm, Sweden: KTH Swedish Royal Institute of Technology; 2006.

 

  1. Pérez-Martínez PJ, Sorba IA. Energy consumption of passenger land transport modes. Energy Environ. 2010;21(6):577-600. doi: 10.1260/0958-305X.21.6.577

 

  1. IUC. High Speed Rail and Sustainability. Paris: International Union of Railways; 2011.

 

  1. Bosquet R, Vandanjon PO, Coiret A, Lorino T. Model of high-speed train energy consumption. World Acad Sci Eng Technol Int J Energy Power Eng. 2013;7(6):767-771. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1079742

 

  1. TRB. NCRRP Report 3: Comparison of Passenger Rail Energy Consumption with Competing Modes. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board; 2015.

 

  1. Hasegawa D, Nicholson GL, Roberts C, Schmid F, Nicholson G. Standardised approach to energy consumption calculations for high-speed rail. IET Electr Syst Transp. 2016;6(3):179-189. doi: 10.1049/iet-est.2015.0002

 

  1. Dalkic G, Balaban O, Tuydes-Yaman H, Celikkol-Kocak T. An assessment of the CO2 emissions reduction in high speed rail lines: Two case studies from Turkey. J Cleaner Prod. 2017;165:746-761. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.045

 

  1. Fritz E, Klühspies J, Kircher R, Witt M, Blow L. Energy consumption of track-based high-speed trains: Maglev systems in comparison with wheel-rail systems. Transp Syst Technol. 2018;4(3 Suppl 1):134-155. doi: 10.17816/transsyst201843s1134-155

 

  1. Prussi M, Lonza L. Passenger aviation and high speed rail: A comparison of emissions profiles on selected European routes. J Adv Transp. 2018;2018:6205714. doi: 10.1155/2018/6205714

 

  1. Chang Y, Lei S, Teng J, Zhang J, Zhang L, Xu X. The energy use and environmental emissions of high-speed rail transportation in China: A bottom-up modeling. Energy. 2019;182(1):193-201. doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.06.120

 

  1. Chen P, Lu Y, Wan Y, Zhang A. Assessing carbon dioxide emissions of high-speed rail: The case of Beijing-Shanghai corridor. Transp Res Part D. 2021;97:102949. doi: 10.1016/j.trd.2021.102949

 

  1. BITRE. Statistical Report-Domestic Aviation Activity 2019. Canberra: Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics; 2019.

 

  1. NSW EPA. Calendar Year Air Emissions Inventory for the Greater Metropolitan Region in NSW, Technical Report 6-Off- Road Mobile Emissions: Results. Sydney: NSW Environment Protection Authority; 2008.

 

  1. TER. Real-World CO2 Emissions Performance of the Australian New Passenger Vehicle Fleet 2008-2018-Impacts of Trends in Vehicle/Engine Design. Transport Energy/ Emission Research; 2019. Available from: https://www. transport-e-research.com/publications [Last accessed on 2023 Oct 02].

 

  1. Laird P. New Track and Upgraded Track for Rail Sector Growth-the Past and Next 25 years. In: Conference on Railway Excellence, Melbourne, Australia; 2023.

 

  1. RFI. Reducing Emissions in Australian Domestic Freight Transport. Rail Futures Institute Inc.; 2023. Available from: https://www.railfutures.org.au/wp-content/ uploads/2023/12/231215-rfi-submission-reducing-emissions-in-freight-1.pdf [Last accessed on 2024 Feb 01].

 

  1. IEA. GHG Intensity of Passenger Transport Modes. Paris: International Energy Agency; 2019. Available from: https:// www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/ghg-intensity-of-passenger-transport-modes-2019 [Last accessed on 2023 Nov 10].

 

  1. IPCC. Climate Change 2022-Mitigation of Climate Change. Working Group III Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report. Intergovernmental Pannel on Climate Change. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press; 2022.

 

  1. TER. COPERT Australia. Transport Energy/Emission Research. Available from: https://www.transport-e-research. com/software-copaus [Last accessed on 2023 Nov 20].

 

  1. Smit R, Awadallah MM, Bagheri S, Surawski NC. Real-world emission factors for SUVs using on-board emission testing and geo-computation. Transp Res D. 2022;107:103286. doi: 10.1016/j.trd.2022.103286

 

  1. TER. New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) Design Options and Estimated Impacts on Lifetime CO2 Exhaust Emissions from New Australian Light-Duty Vehicles. Transport Energy/ Emission Research (TER); 2024. Available from: https://www. transport-e-research.com/publicationspublication2024c [Last accessed on 2024 Apr 22].
Previous article in this issue
Share
Back to top
Explora: Environment and Resource, Electronic ISSN: 3060-9046 Published by AccScience Publishing
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here
Accept