In the United States, the Surface Transportation Board categorizes rail carriers into Class I, Class II, and Class III based on carrier's annual revenues.
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There are six Class I freight railroad companies in the United States: BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Canadian National Railway, CPKC, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. Canadian National also operates in Canada and CPKC operates Canada and Mexico.
This is an interactive map of the major freight railroads, also known as class I railroads in the United States. They include CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS), Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF), Union Pacific (UP), Canadian Pacific (CP), Canadian National Railway (CN), and the Kansas City Southern (KCS).
There are seven major railroads in the United States (Class I railroads) and over 500 shortline and regional railroads (Class II & Class III railroads). These lines are critical for shippers needing an economical solution to long-haul transportation. See our interactive maps below.
Class III railroads are typically local short-line railroads serving a small number of towns and industries or hauling cars for one or more railroads; often they once had been branch lines of larger railroads or even abandoned portions of main lines.
The US rail network, with an operating route length over 250,000km, is the biggest in the world. Freight lines constitute about 80% of the country's total rail network, while the total passenger network spans about 35,000km.
As wireless technologies advanced in the 1960s, freight railroads began adding extra locomotives to the rear of trains to give them enough power to climb steep hills. This is how distributed power was born.
1. Switzerland. Tucked inside the small but incredibly beautiful country of Switzerland is one of the most efficient and scenic rail networks in the world.
It probably comes as no surprise that in a global 2019 survey of railroad efficiency, the top two places went to Japan and Hong Kong, with scores of 6.8 and 6.5 (out of seven) respectively.
While the United States has the largest overall rail network, China boasts the largest highspeed rail network. In 2021 the country operated nearly 40,500 kilometers of highspeed rail lines.
The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. Main station building on Moor Road.