The potential for premium-intermodal services to reduce freight CO2 emissions in the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor

The Quebec City–Windsor Corridor is the busiest and most important trade and transportation corridor in Canada. The transportation sector is the second largest greenhouse gas emission category in the country. This paper estimates the potential for CO2 emission reductions in the freight transportation sector by estimating demand for premium-intermodal services between the main Corridor destinations. CO2 reductions are estimated on the basis of a stated preference carrier choice survey of shippers in the Corridor. Survey data were used to develop mode share models for five different categories of shipments between 18 city pairs. A railyard catchment approach was taken to arrive at estimates of contestable intercity truck traffic using a subset of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s Commercial Vehicle Survey. CO2 emissions were based on current truck traffic estimates, and emissions factors obtained from MOBILE6.2C.