The claim is that a train moves a ton of freight at 470 miles per gallon. > Trains can move a ton of freight over 470 miles on a single gallon of fuel. [0] Th

The claim is that a train moves a ton of freight at 470 miles per gallon. > Trains can move a ton of freight over 470 miles on a single gallon of fuel. [0] The claim isn't that the whole train goes that distance in a single gallon. Each train can carry thousand to tens of thousands of tons of freight. So the train would need thousands to tens of thousand of gallons to go those 470 miles. This is CXS's calculation [0] > Schedule 750, Lines 1+3, Diesel Fuel Consumed (freight + switching) = 487,540,790 gallons > Schedule 755, Line 110, Revenue Ton-Miles = 229,562,353,000245,212,180,000 RTM > RTM per gallon = (229,562,353,000 RTM / 487,540,790 gals) = 471 RTM/gal You might think that CXS's numbers are cherry picked, but this matches closely with the numbers of the US rail road industry as a whole which was 435.88 ton-miles per gallon of fuel [1]. The reason that trains are so efficient is that a relatively low speed train on steel wheels with steel rails minimises friction losses[2]. Once the train gets going it doesn't take much to keep it going. [0] - https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fuel-efficiency/ https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fue... [1] - http://www.factcheck.org/2008/07/fuel-efficient-freight-trains/ http://www.factcheck.org/2008/07/fuel-efficient-freight-trai... [2] - http://www.ctls.uconn.edu/do-csx-trains-really-move-1-ton-of-cargo-500-miles-on-1-gallon-of-fuel.html http://www.ctls.uconn.edu/do-csx-trains-really-move-1-ton-of...