Excited to announce that Prof. Dick has recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper reviews published literature on the life cycle carbon impact of railway track infrastructure to highlight key differences in the amount of material used and resulting estimates of embodied carbon for different track construction types and maintenance practices. Even for similar track structures, published values show considerable variability due to differing assumptions regarding system boundaries, background data sources, and assumptions regarding energy sources, component maintenance and materials transportation. Because the literature is dominated by non-US studies and track structures are not representative of common heavy haul freight corridors, there is a critical need for US-specific life cycle inventory (LCI) datasets and environmental product declarations. This work was conducted in collaboration with Michigan Technological University and with funding support fom the Federal Railroad Administration.
The reference and DOI link for the paper is as follows:
Taeb, M.A.., P. Lautala and C.T. Dick. 2026. Assessing railway track embodied carbon: life cycle inventory literature review. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981261434227.