2011 Volume 7 Issue 4 Pages 360-367
As environmental consciousness has been expanding on a global scale, the railway has drawn attention as the environmentally-friendly transportation system. However, it has been generally discussed only in terms of the operating stage. It is necessary to evaluate the environmental impacts through their whole life cycle. This paper aims to construct a methodology for evaluating the total environmental load of railway systems from the construction to disposal by the application of the life cycle assessment（LCA）. It also considers extended life cycle environmental load（ELCEL）, which includes the effects of the environmental load reduction by decreasing alternatives to railway lines such as car traffic. This method is available for the environmental evaluation of new railway projects in the planning phase.
