national railways, rail transportation services owned and operated by national governments. U.S. railways are privately owned and operated, though the Consolidated Rail Corporation was established by the federal government and Amtrak uses public funds to subsidize privately owned intercity passenger trains.

In the United States, the majority of the railroad infrastructure is privately owned by massive freight companies known as Class I railroads. As of 2026, the "Big Four" American-owned Class I companies are Union Pacific, BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, and Norfolk Southern. Additionally, two major Canadian companies, Canadian National (CN) and CPKC (Canadian Pacific Kansas City), own and operate significant trackage within the U.S. Unlike the national highway system, which is government-funded, these private corporations are responsible for the maintenance and dispatching of their own tracks. Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, is a government-funded corporation that owns a small percentage of its tracks (primarily in the Northeast Corridor) but must pay "access fees" to the private freight railroads to run its trains across the rest of the country.