Abstract: In order to promote the green transformation of the transportation industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and achieve coordinated development of the transportation industry and carbon emission reduction, the study analyzes the decoupling situation and driving factors between the economic development of the transportation industry and the carbon emissions of transportation energy during 2004 to 2018, with a combined use of the Tapio decoupling model and the LMDI factor decomposition approach. The results show that both the total and per capita carbon emissions of the transportation industry were on the rise in the Yangtze Economic Belt from 2004 to 2018, and the carbon emissions from petroleum energy consumption accounted for 95.51% of the total emissions. The decoupling of transportation carbon emission in the belt was mainly "weak decoupling", with "connecting growth" and "expanding negative decoupling" in some years, and the decoupling state was unstable. On a whole, the economic development of the transportation industry in the belt has not yet shaken off its dependence on transportation energy carbon emissions. To be specific, scale of transportation industry, economic growth and population size restrained, while transportation energy intensity and energy structure promoted the decoupling of transportation energy carbon emissions in the belt. Among the factors, economic effect is the main factor impeding the decoupling of transportation energy carbon emissions, while energy intensity effect is the main factor promoting it. Based on the findings, the study puts forward relevant suggestions on facilitating economic restructuring, optimizing transportation energy consumption structure, boosting scientific and technological innovation, and strengthening transportation demand management (TDM) as effective measures to realize the coordinated development of transportation industry and carbon emission reduction in the belt.