Freight Rail Cuts Congestion, Drives Green Economy in Bay State
With freight shipments increasing and highway congestion on the rise, rail offers Massachusetts a way to tackle growing demand without tying commuters up in ever worsening traffic. Because freight rail moves cargo economically while using less fuel and emitting fewer pollutants than trucks, companies and communities throughout the Commonwealth benefit from rail in more ways than one.
Massachusetts’s 12 freight railroads operate over 760 miles of track and employ 538 in The Bay State.* It would have taken approximately 683,000 additional trucks to handle the 12.3 million tons of freight that started, ended, or moved through Massachusetts in 2023. Moving freight by rail prevented 859,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 168,000 cars off the road or planting 13 million trees. Intermodal and waste and scrap make up the majority of freight rail shipments beginning in Massachusetts. Intermodal shipments are the largest rail imports to the commonwealth.
*2023 data
