Railroad Facts



 

There are over 3000 ties per mile of track. 

The U.S. rail network is huge.  It is an integrated system of approximately 550 separate railroads which haul a fleet of more than 1.5 million freight cars over a network of approximately 142,000 miles.

The more than 600 freight railroads operating in Canada, Mexico and the United States are vital to North America's economic health.  They form a seamless integrated system that provides the world's most efficient, cost-effective freight service.  North American railroads operate over 173,000 miles of track and earn $42 billion in annual revenues.

Rail is sized by pounds per yard. (example 39' of 90# rail equals 1170 lbs.)

In contrast to other continents, the vast majority of North American freight railroads are for-profit, tax-paying,
private sector firms.

 A loaded grain car weighs 263,000 lbs. and holds 3,500 bushel of corn.

Railroads remain the backbone of North America's freight transportation network.  In the U.S., railroads account for more than 40 percent of all freight transportation - and that's more than trucks, boats, barges or planes. Measured in ton-miles, freight railroads carry 42% of the nation's intercity freight.

Class 1 U.S. railroads provided a record 1.66 trillion ton-miles of freight service in 2004.

In 2004 rail transportation took almost 11 million trailers and containers-- a record --off the nation's highways.

U.S. freight railroads are the world's busiest, moving more freight that any rail system in any other country.  In fact, U.S. railroads move more than four times as much freight as do all of Western Europe's freight railroads combined.

One freight train can carry the load of up to 500 trucks.  One intermodal train can carry 280 truck trailers.

Railroads have made tremendous safety gains.  Since 1980, train accident rates have declined 65%.

Railroads are the most capital intensive industry in our country.  The industry spends billions in maintaining and improving their infrastructure.  From 1980 through 2003, Class 1 railroads invested more than $320 billion on infrastructure and equipment.

In 2004 the average rail freight shipment moved more than 900 miles.

Railroads carry a wide range of products used by consumers ever day. Seventy percent of all automobiles produced in the U.S. move by train (that's enough cars to account for 7 out of 10 sold every year).  So does 30 percent of the nation's grain harvest and 65 percent of the coal which, in turn, provides more than half of the nation's electricity. Railroads move enough wheat to provide every man, woman and child a fresh loaf of bread six days a week... enough lumber to build almost three houses every minute of every day... and enough concrete to build 45 miles of new highway every day, and enough newsprint for more than 10 billion newspapers.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, railroads have lower employee injury rates than other modes of transportation and more other major industries including agriculture, construction, and hotel industries.

Rail intermodal, the movement of truck trailers or containers by rail and at least one other mode of transportation, has been the fastest growing segment of the freight rail industry.  It combines the door-to-door convenience of trucks with the long-haul economy of railroads.
 

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