WHEREAS, The first railroad to circumvent the Allegheny
Mountains, the Allegheny Portage Railroad, was also completed by
the Commonwealth in 1834 as part of the Main Line of Public
Works system; and
WHEREAS, The United States has approximately 570 freight
railroads, including nearly 140,000 miles of track; and
WHEREAS, Freight rail carries approximately 40 tons of
freight for each person in the United States each year; and
WHEREAS, Forty percent of all intercity freight volume is
moved by freight rail, including the clothes we wear, the food
we eat, the coal we use for domestic energy and the automobiles
we drive; and
WHEREAS, Freight railroads have nearly doubled the amount of
cargo they have shipped over the past three decades with
virtually no increase in fuel consumption; and
WHEREAS, Freight rail is one of the most fuel-efficient modes
of transportation, able to move 1 ton of freight approximately
476 miles on 1 gallon of diesel fuel; and
WHEREAS, Freight railroads have increased fuel efficiency by
more than 100% since 1980; and
WHEREAS, In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency
finalized a program to reduce emissions from locomotive engines
to cut particulate emissions by up to 90% and nitrogen oxide
emissions by up to 80%; and
WHEREAS, In 2015, United States freight railroads consumed
712 million fewer gallons of fuel and emitted 8 million fewer
tons of carbon dioxide than they would have if their fuel
efficiency had remained constant since 2000; and
WHEREAS, From 2000 through 2015, United States freight
railroads consumed 6.9 billion fewer gallons of fuel and emitted
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