Truck-Rail Intermodal Flows: A Corridor Toolkit

(PI: Robert Harrison, CoPIs: Chandra Bhat and Dan Seedah)

Texas faces increased freight demands from population growth and economic success, with little prospect of adding substantial lane miles to the TxDOT principal highway networks. In Texas's truck-dominated intrastate corridors, can railroads offer competitive service and reduce truck volumes? Current mode choice models do not capture the effects of weight, speed, engine power, grade, or curvature--key elements of any mechanistic approach. Moreover, they are incapable of fully internalizing external or social costs into their calculations. Therefore, in two critical areas for transportation planner--fuel costs and emissions--existing models are deficient. This project provides the necessary components for building a mechanistic rail model calibrated for Texas and implements a spreadsheet-based rail and truck costing toolkit which can be utilized by TxDOT MPO planning staff. The output of the toolkit will allow planners to compare truck and rail service over a freight corridor in terms of overall cost, fuel costs, emissions per ton-mile, and related secondary costs such as pick-up and delivery costs for rail freight. Class One railroad companies--including BNSF, UP, and CSX--have expressed interest in calibrating the rail model, while the truck costs will be derived from TxDOT project 0-5974 and related models.