Environment
Emissions calculator
Enter the route and volume to see the emissions of the transport on rail – and what the same cargo would emit on the road.
Your transport
Rail 467 km · road 470 km
Used to show the annual effect (52 weeks).
Result per trip
16 tonnes of cargo · 467 km by rail, 470 km by road
97.6 %lower emissions
Per trip
- Rail per tonne-km
- 1.7 g CO₂e
- Truck per tonne-km
- 70 g CO₂e
- Trucks off the road
- 1
Per year (52 weeks)
- By rail
- 2 tonnes
- By truck
- 82.1 tonnes
- Trucks off the road
- 156
- Saved
- 80.1 tonnes
Examples
What 29,800 tonnes of CO₂ means in practice
These figures are not industry estimates. They are based on actual transport in 2025 per route, calculated with the same factors as the calculator and "How we calculate".
OnRail in 2025
All transport we carried out.
CO₂e saved
- Cargo (gross weight)
- 810,179 tonnes
- Tonne-kilometres
- 818 million
- Load carriers
- 61,576
- Trucks off the road
- approx. 42,000approx. 115 a day
Customer example from 2025
One of our customers.
CO₂e saved
- Cargo (gross weight)
- 153,664 tonnes
- Tonne-kilometres
- 178 million
- Trailers
- 6,557
- Trucks off the road
- 6,557
Compared with something familiar
Large numbers are hard to relate to. Here is OnRail's total saving in 2025 compared with something familiar:
1.36 milliontrees
The cut corresponds to the annual CO₂ uptake of a fully grown forest of this size.
14,900fossil-fuel cars
That equals the combined annual emissions of as many petrol and diesel cars.
33,900holiday flights
The climate footprint equals flying roughly the entire population of Molde on a round trip Oslo–Alicante.
Methodology
How we calculate
We believe climate figures only have value if they can be verified. That's why we lay the entire calculation open, including the items that work against us.
No greenwashing
Where we are uncertain, we choose the assumption that gives the least benefit to rail. The benefit of moving cargo from road to rail is large enough to withstand honest figures.
Show the full calculationHide the calculation
- Truck
- Road transport is set at 0.07 kg CO₂e per tonne-kilometre of cargo, equivalent to a modern Euro 6 diesel with normal load factor and empty running. That is below Statistics Norway's average for Norwegian trucks. Fully loaded trucks can be lower and electric ones far lower, but most trucks on Norwegian roads run on diesel.
- Load carrier
- The truck's emissions per tonne of cargo already include the fuel needed to pull the tractor and trailer. On rail we count the full weight the train lifts, including the trailer or container.
- Distance
- Rail is calculated terminal to terminal along the normal route. The truck is calculated with the shortest road route, which is often shorter.
- Åndalsnes
- The train to Åndalsnes is usually hauled by a hybrid locomotive, but occasionally also by our only diesel locomotive. The hybrid runs on diesel only Dombås–Åndalsnes (114 km). We assume a diesel locomotive on 20% of trips.
- Electricity
- We use NVE's factor for physically delivered electricity (0.015 kg CO₂e per kWh, 2023). The Narvik route runs mainly through Sweden, where electricity is equally low-emission, and we use the same factor for the whole route.
- Energy use
- 0.08 kWh per tonne-kilometre is an empirical figure from our own operations. It varies somewhat, and can at times be slightly higher. Diesel operation is calculated at 0.033 kg CO₂e per tonne-kilometre.
- This is not included
- Construction of infrastructure, manufacturing of rolling stock, terminal handling and last-mile road transport at both ends. The calculator measures the line-haul transport itself. A full life-cycle analysis would need to add these elements for both modes.
- Updated
- The figures were updated in October 2026 with stricter assumptions: road distance for trucks, cargo instead of gross weight on road, and diesel locomotives on part of the Åndalsnes traffic.
Load carriers or weight – two ways to count
When we started the freight train on the Rauma Line in 2021, it was often said that the train replaces 10,000 trucks a year. That figure is counted in load carriers: the number of trailers the train actually lifts, with ten loaded wagons per train. The calculations on this page count weight – tonne-kilometres – because weight is what drives emissions. The two methods give different figures without either being wrong; they answer different questions. We always state which method a figure comes from.
— Synne, 11 years
Drawn by the next generation
Greener freight, seen with fresh eyes
The leaf in the O and the sprouts on the l say what the numbers above show: freight on rails means lower emissions.