What are the Class 1 railroads in the US?

The current Class I freight railroads are: Union Pacific (UP); BNSF Railway; Canadian National (CN) Railway; Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway; Norfolk Southern (NS) Railway; and Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway. Amtrak, a passenger railroad company, is also considered a Class I.



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List of major United States railroads
  • Amtrak.
  • BNSF Railway.
  • Canadian National Railway.
  • CPKC Railway.
  • CSX Transportation.
  • Norfolk Southern Railway.
  • Union Pacific Railroad.


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Union Pacific became the safest U.S. Class 1 railroad in employee safety for the third consecutive year. The top-performing railroad had a 0.79 reportable injury rate in 2017, according to Federal Railroad Administration data.

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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).

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The history of the Class 1 railroad traces back to our country's first common-carrier, the Baltimore & Ohio. During the next century more than 140 such systems came to serve this great country. After World War II a series of mergers, bankruptcies, and takeovers reduced the number to the current seven.

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With the merger of Canada Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern Railway, the Class I railroads will be much closer in size to each other now that the two smallest railroads have combined.

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Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern and West South Central United States.

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What is the biggest Class I Railroad?
  • BNSF Railway – $25.9 Billion Revenue, 32,500 route miles, 35,000 employees.
  • Union Pacific Railroad – $24.9 Billion Revenue, 32,100 route miles, 32,100 employees.
  • CSX Transportation – $14.9 Billion Revenue, 20,000 route miles, 25,000 employees.


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The oldest surviving steam railway locomotive in the world is Puffing Billy, which was built in 1813/14 for Christopher Blackett, owner of Wylam Colliery, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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However, hoping to capitalize on the publicity and good PR brought about by Mr. Goodman's song, Amtrak revived it again in 1981. Today, you can still ride the City of New Orleans 900 miles along the original IC right-of-way (now owned by Canadian National).

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Top 5 2022 Railroads
  • BNSF Railway – $25.9 Billion Revenue.
  • 2 . Union Pacific Railroad – $24.9 Billion Revenue.
  • CSX Transportation – $14.9 Billion Revenue.
  • Norfolk Southern Railway – $12.7 Billion Revenue.
  • Canadian National Railway – $12.4 Billion Revenue.
  • Sources and Tools Used.


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One of the most frequently asked questions we receive when conducting training on railroading basics is: “Who owns the railroad tracks?” In the United States and Canada, that answer is overwhelmingly the railroads themselves.

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Worst accidents The worst accident was the Quintinshill rail disaster in Scotland in 1915 with 226 dead and 246 injured. Second worst, and the worst in England, was the 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, which killed 112 people and injured 340.

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What is the safest railway in the world? Japan's Shinkansen high-speed rail network opened for business on 1 October 1964. Since then the system has carried nearly 7 billion passengers without a single fatality due to collision.

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