Spent several hours looking up statistics for fuel consumption for freight transportation and rail wins, even over water. Statistics for water transport normally don't include the empty movement---why I don't know---but when the total move, loaded and empty (barges don't magicly appear at the loading points) movements are tallied rail wins hands down. In fact, for the Snake and Columbia River system, I could find only one study that included the empty upstream movement in the fuel use statistics (That study found that during periods of peak currents, it can take as much as 12 times more fuel to move the empty barges upstream, than it takes to move the loads downstream---and that fuel consumption increases during periods strong currents as steering becomes a problem). Statistics for the Mississippi system are also lacking empty movements as well. Also, rails have been investing in those pesky techno toaster locomotives that are an average of 33% more fuel efficient than older locomotives (most statistical studies I found don't include that fact either) and shipping lines are not updating their fleets as fast as the railroads are, and can't achieve much of the gains anyway as much of the locomotive gains have come from increased adheasion to the rail.