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China’s vast high-speed rail is a big emitter but down the line leads to greener freight: study
- When passengers opted out of slower trains in favour of high-speed rail, road freight moved to fill the much greener conventional trains
- Beijing-Shanghai line led to the highest overall drop in greenhouse gas emissions – more than 3 million tonnes per year on average – according to paper
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China’s rapid expansion of high-speed rail has indirectly cut greenhouse gas emissions by creating capacity for freight on conventional trains, according to a new study.
Electricity-powered high-speed rail (HSR) produces more emissions than cars on highways and conventional railway in China where coal power dominates electricity production.
However, the network’s massive growth between 2008 and 2016 has led to an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equal to about 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – or 1.33 per cent of China’s total transport sector emissions – compared with the pre-high-speed rail era.
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When passengers opted out of the slower conventional trains in favour of high-speed rail, road freight moved to fill the much greener conventional trains, causing a drop in emissions, according to the researchers.
China, the world’s biggest energy user and greenhouse gas emitter, has been expanding its high-speed railway network in the past decade to connect major cities, with 38,000km of rail operating by the end of 2020, compared with 19,800km in 2015.
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