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Domestic Waterborne Commerce, 1970-2002 Army Corps of Engineers Transportation Energy Data Book #24, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

	Number	Tons	Average			Waterborne Commerce	Class I Freight Railroads
Year	of Vessels	Shipped	Length of haul	Ton-Miles	Energy Use	Energy Intensity	Energy Intensity
		(millions)	(miles)	(billions)	(trillion BTU)	(BTU/ton-mile)	(BTU/ton-mile)
1970	25,832	949	628.2	596.2	324.8	544.8	528.1
1975	31,666	944	599.9	566.3	311.0	549.2	518.3
1976	33,204	976	606.3	591.7	277.3	468.6
1977	35,333	969	618.0	598.8	274.3	458.1
1978	35,723	1,072	771.6	827.2	316.6	382.8
1979	36,264	1,076	770.0	828.5	378.7	457.1
1980	38,792	1,074	856.4	919.8	329.8	358.6	548.7
1981	42,079	1,051	884.0	929.1	334.5	360.0	521.0
1982	42,079	954	929.0	886.3	274.9	310.2	440.8
1983	41,784	953	964.6	919.3	293.7	319.5	435.1
1984	41,784	1,029	862.5	887.5	307.3	346.2	469.9
1985	41,672	1,011	883.5	893.2	398.6	446.3	436.1
1986	40,308	1,033	845.3	873.2	404.0	462.7	421.5
1987	40,000	1,072	835.0	895.1	370.7	414.1	430.3
1988	39,192	1,106	804.3	889.6	321.3	361.2	441.4
1989	39,209	1,097	743.2	815.3	328.6	403.0	442.6
1990	39,233	1,118	745.7	833.7	323.2	387.7	434.7
1991	39,233	1,074	789.9	848.4	327.5	386.0	405.8
1992	39,210	1,090	785.7	856.4	341.0	398.2	419.2
1993	39,064	1,063	742.7	789.5	307.0	388.9	431.6
1994	39,064	1,093	745.5	814.8	300.7	369.0	465.4
1995	39,641	1,086	743.6	807.5	302.2	374.2	485.9
1996	41,104	1,093	699.4	764.4	314.9	411.9	499.4
1997	41,419	1,106	639.5	707.3	293.2	414.5	499.7
1998	42,032	1,087	619.0	672.9	293.1	435.6	502.0
1999	41,766	1,056	621.1	655.9	299.9	457.2	520.0
2000	41,354	1,064	606.8	645.6	305.6	473.3	516.0
2001	41,588	1,037	599.7	621.9	286.1	460.1	517.3
2002	41,002	1,016	602.5	612.1	288.5	471.3	520.3

To convert from Million BTUs to Megawatt-hours multiply by 0.2931
For example, consider a one-way 140 mile trip on the Lower Snake River(LSR) in 2002 and assume a $35/Megawatt-hour value
471.3(BTU/ton-mile) x 0.2931(Megawatt-hours/Million BTUs) x 140(miles/LSR trip) $35/Megawatt-hour = $0.68/ton/LSR trip
471.3(BTU/ton-mile) x 0.2931(Megawatt-hours/Million BTUs) x 140(miles/LSR trip) $50/Megawatt-hour = $0.97/ton/LSR trip
This compares well with the $1.48/ton/LSR trip charged by Tidewater Barge Lines in 1999 (see bargrate.htm).
Notice also that moving freight by rail is about 10% higher in energy use than by water, not including lost power from lock flushes.
Lock flushes on the Lower Snake result in $1.64 million in lost electricity sales (see www.bluefish.org/lsr(p1).doc).