The energy-environment efficiency of road and railway sectors in China: Evidence from the provincial level

•We combine the non-radial DEA model with window analysis.•We study the energy-environment (EE) efficiency of road and railway sectors in China.•We use the Tobit model to analyze the affecting factors of the EE efficiency.•Railway sector has a higher potential to improve the EE efficiency than road sector.•Road (railway) sector in east (west) China has the highest average EE efficiency. The transportation sector, particularly the road and the railway sectors, is an important source of CO2 emissions in China. This study combines the non-radial data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with window analysis to measure the energy-environment efficiency of the road and railway sectors of 30 provinces in China, then uses the Tobit regression model to analyze the factors affecting the energy-environment efficiency. The findings suggest that, first of all, although these two sectors are both with high energy-environment efficiency, there is a higher probability for railway sector to improve its energy-environment efficiency than that of road sector, with the average energy-environment efficiency 0.9307 and 0.9815, respectively. Second, the road sector in eastern China with the highest average energy-environment efficiency, lower in the western region, and lowest in the central region. As for the railway sector, the western region has the highest average energy-environment efficiency, followed by the central and the eastern regions. Third, the relationship between energy-environment efficiency and income level in the road and railway sectors follow the U-shaped and inverted U-shaped curves, respectively.