The role of high-speed rail in mitigating climate change – The Swedish case Europabanan from a life cycle perspective

In this paper a life cycle perspective is used to analyse Europabanan, a proposed high-speed rail track in Sweden. The life cycle emissions reductions are found to be 550,000 tons of CO2-equivalents per annum by 2025/2030 with almost 60% of this coming from a shift from truck to rail freight and 40% from a shift from air and road travel to high-speed rail travel. In contexts similar to Sweden, it is thus an important issue whether a large increase is required in freight rail capacity anyway, since high-speed rail investments may not be justified for the passenger markets alone. The study also indicates that a substantial share of emissions due to construction of the new railway could be counterbalanced through the reduced need for building and maintaining roads and airports, and for manufacturing cars.

Research highlights
► Proposed Swedish high-speed tracks are analysed from a life cycle perspective.
► Indirect effects regarding vehicles and infrastructure are included for all modes.
► Annual emissions reductions are found to be 550,000 tons of CO2-equivalents.
► Key variables are modal shifts and carbon intensity of electricity.
► Important to consider if freight rail capacity need to be increased anyway.