In 1993, the average width a railway takes up is about 0.016 miles. “Rail transport thus requires about 0.016 square miles of land space per mile of railway track and surrounding buffer; as a result, only about 2,784 square miles of land in the U.S. are devoted to railway infrastructure,” While this may not sound much to the 3.8 million square miles of the United States, the land is not the only aspect of the environment being affected.
Air pollution is also an environmental impact from the construction of railroads. In the early 1900’s, there was a complaint about sulfur dioxide from the Southern Pacific line. Sulfur dioxide is a colorless gas that comes from burning fossil fuels. In the case of trains, “…wood dropped from supplying more
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Most species are very adaptable to habitat alteration, but this aspect ceased to be their demise. The railroad westward expansion disrupted habitats through forests, prairies, and rocky terrain. While the land of the rocky terrain may have not been as effected, the railways cutting through forests and prairies made the most impact on wildlife. Various animals, like foxes and moose, are said to use the railways for walking long distances. Bears also utilize the railways to forage for any food that fell from the cars. This causes wildlife-train collision, or WTC. At busier times, there are more WTC than roadkill. Trains are relatively slow-moving and are difficult to stop, so some wildlife collisions kill more than one animal. Especially herbivores that travel in groups, for they stop close to railways to graze. The poor design of a railway creates a greater risk for WTC. Several factors that influence this increased rate of WTC is if there is a sharp bend, less railway noise, or bigger rails. Research on how railway design affects WTC was most studied on turtles, who are slow and get stuck between tracks. There have been some prototypes made to reduce the number of wildlife train collisions. Simple structures under railways have recently been put in place. A small tunnel under the rails allows turtles and small animals to cross railroads safely. This does not