U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Vehicle Technologies Program

Fact #221: June 17, 2002
Transit Rail Energy Intensity Varies By System

Because of the inherent differences in the nature of services, routes available, and many additional factors, the energy intensity of transit rail systems can vary substantially among systems. The charts below show that for 2000, light rail systems varied from 1,600 Btu per passenger-mile to over 8,000 Btu per passenger-mile; energy intensity for heavy rail systems ranged from 2,200 to 6,200 Btu per passenger-mile.

Light Rail Transit Systems
Graph: Light Rail Transit Systems
Heavy Rail Transit Systems
Graph: Heavy Rail Transit Systems

Supporting Information

Light Rail Transit
City, State Btu per passenger-mile
Cleveland, OH 8,250
Pittsburgh, PA 7,526
San Jose, CA 7,035
Buffalo, NY 6,839
San Francisco, CA 6,591
Dallas, TX 5,935
Philadelphia, PA 5,828
Baltimore, MD 5,508
Seattle, WA 5,383
Sacramento, CA 4,368
Boston, MA 3,878
Denver, CO 3,612
Portland, OR 2,927
Los Angeles, CA 2,621
New Orleans, LA 2,594
St. Louis, MO 2,366
San Diego, CA 2,337
Salt Lake City, UT 1,970
Newark, NJ 1,597

 

Heavy Rail Transit
City, State Btu per passenger-mile
Cleveland, OH 6,173
Lindenwold, NJ 5,027
Miami, FL 4,928
Boston, MA 4,464
Chicago, IL 4,205
Philadelphia, PA 4,001
Baltimore, MD 3,845
Washington, DC 3,761
New York, NY 3,388
Oakland, CA 2,745
Brooklyn, NY 2,482
Atlanta, GA 2,249

Source: Federal Transit Administration, 2000 National Transit Database.

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