Benefits of Rail

We aim to build on our natural advantage as a low emissions transport option for our customers and continue with initiatives to further reduce energy usage across our operations.

With New Zealand’s carbon targets being established, more and more organisations are measuring and monitoring their own carbon footprints. We help our customers to reduce their carbon footprint, as rail transport is on average, 60 per cent more carbon-efficient than heavy road freight.

KiwiRail helps its freight customers quantify the emissions benefits of choosing rail over road through a monthly ‘Steel Wheels’ report. In the year to June 2025open_in_new, KiwiRail transported around 3.4 billion net tonne kilometres of freight, which equates to taking around 1 million truck trips off the road, avoiding 220,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions.

KiwiRail launched a Carbon Calculator open_in_newto meet increasing demand from customers wanting to compare carbon emissions from rail, road and air.  

It allows users to input information about what is travelling on the KiwiRail network, then estimates the emissions created by that journey and compares it to equivalent journeys by road or air. The total emissions calculated also includes the Interislander when rail freight crosses the Cook Strait.