Quantification of GHG Emissions Avoided by Commissioning a Tramway

Since the mobility of citizens is an issue in large cities, the City of Quebec wished to establish a public transportation infrastructure network (PTIN) by 2026-2027. The public transportation network would comprise many components including new incentive parking lots, new high-frequency bus lines, as well as an electric tramway that constitutes the spine of the infrastructure network. The tramway will link the main sectors of the City of Quebec and thereby serve to reduce the number of car trips and foster the use of public transportation.   Beyond improving the City’s public transportation service, this major project will not only reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions thanks to modal transfers from cars to public transportation (impacts on traffic), but also increase urban density along the tramway line.   To quantify the amount of GHG reductions thanks to the implementation of the PTIN and in particular the tramway, the City solicited the services of Econoler to estimate the GHG reductions associated with the impacts on traffic and urban densification.

The quantification mandate of Econoler was rolled out in four stages:

• Validation of the methodology developed by the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) to quantify the avoided GHG emissions due to the PTIN;
• The selection of calculation parameters based on the methodology of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), factoring in the following effects:
• Impacts on traffic;
• Reduced gridlock;
• Benefits of urban densification.
• Modelling the emissions of the agglomeration of Quebec for a reference scenario in the absence of the PTIN for the years 2030, 2041, and 2050;
• Quantification of avoided GHG emissions by the tramway at the end of 2041.

Econoler worked in close cooperation with the Réseau de Transport de la Capitale (RTC) team to obtain traffic data to enable the calculations on the impacts of the PTIN on the City’s GHG emissions. The modelling estimated that 30,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year (tCO2 eq.) would be avoided by commissioning the tramway of the PTIN.