Freight haulage
A 20-tonne truck on the Oslo-Gothenburg route emits 34.3 kg of CO2, or 1.7 kg per tonne, or 5.7 gCO2/km. Truck emissions are 2.5 times greater than those of an HSRF train. An HSRF train can haul the same amount of freight as 36 trucks.
According to the UN there is a climate emergency, and 36 trucks on the Oslo to Gothenburg run emit 6,400 kg of CO2, while an HSRF train only emits 0.6 kg. Every 24 hours, 3,000 trucks ply the route, emitting 197,100 tonnes of CO2/year, while an HSRF train emits the equivalent of 18 tonnes of CO2/year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 8 passenger cars.
The EU has made a great deal of money available for the climate transition in Europe, where the overall goal is to halve truck traffic and transfer the haulage to rail and maritime shipping. Trials are under way in England, Italy and Germany, where HSRF development projects are in progress. A lack of truck drivers is the driving force behind the development.
HSRF trains on the Oslo–Hamburg route consume around 13,500 kW with 8,100 kW in Norway and Sweden at 13 gCO2/kWh, and 5,400 kW in Denmark and Germany at 476 gCO2/kWh. This gives total CO2 emissions of 4.36 kg/tonne (3,926 kg), to be compared with a truck at 18.79 kg/tonne (639 kg).
It is unlikely to be possible to transfer all truck shipments to rail and even less likely to the Skagerrak Line high-speed railway. But it is likely that climate transition will enable one train per hour in each direction to replace today’s truck traffic on the E6.
Every day, 3,000 trucks with an average load of 16 tonnes traffic the E6. This means 48,000 tonnes of goods cross the border between Norway and Sweden every day, even during winter ice and snow.
It would take 2,000 containers to haul 48,000 tonnes of goods, and each high-speed train can haul 20 containers, which would mean 5 wagons in a 200 metre EMU set. It would take 6 trains an hour for 16 hours a day or 3 trains per hour in each direction if all Oslo–Gothenburg truck traffic were to be replaced by HSRF on the Skagerrak Line.
