Rail transportation in the United States

Rail transport in the United States
A CSX train at a diamond junction in Marion, Ohio
Operation
Major operators	Amtrak BNSF Railway Canadian National Railway CPKC Railway CSX Transportation Norfolk Southern Railway Union Pacific Railroad
Statistics
Ridership	549,631,632[1] 29 million (Amtrak only)[2] (2014)
Passenger km	10.3 billion[2] (2014)
Freight	1.71 trillion ton-mile[2] (2014)
System length
Total	160,141 miles (257,722 km)
Track gauge
Main	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Features
Longest tunnel	Cascade Tunnel, 7.8 miles (12.6 km)
Map Class 1 railroads with intermodal terminals and maritime RoRo ports

Rail transportation in the United States consists primarily of freight shipments along a well integrated network of standard gauge private freight railroads that also extend into Canada and Mexico. The United States has the largest rail transport network of any country in the world, about 160,000 miles (260,000 km).

Passenger service is a mass transit option for Americans with commuter rail in most major American cities, especially on the East Coast. Intercity passenger service was once a large and vital part of the nation's passenger transportation network, but passenger service shrank in the 20th century as commercial air traffic and the Interstate Highway System made commercial air and road transport a practical option throughout the United States.

The nation's earliest railroads were built in the 1820s and 1830s, primarily in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, chartered in 1827, was the nation's first common-carrier railroad. By 1850, an extensive railroad network had taken shape in the rapidly industrializing Northeastern United States and the Midwest, while fewer railroads were built in the South, which was more agricultural than other regions. During and after the American Civil War, the first transcontinental railroad was built, to join California with the rest of the national network, at a connection in Iowa.

Railroads expanded throughout the rest of the 19th century, eventually reaching nearly every corner of the nation. The railroads were temporarily nationalized between 1917 and 1920 by the United States Railroad Administration, because of American entry into World War I. Railroad mileage peaked at this time. Railroads were affected deeply by the Great Depression in the United States, and some lines were abandoned. A great increase in traffic during World War II brought a reprieve, but after the war railroads faced intense competition from automobiles and aircraft and began a long decline. Passenger service was especially hard hit; in 1971 the federal government created Amtrak, to take over responsibility for intercity passenger travel. Numerous railroad companies went bankrupt starting in the 1960s, most notably Penn Central Transportation Company in 1971, in the largest bankruptcy in the nation's history at the time. Once again, the federal government intervened, forming Conrail, in 1976, to assume control of bankrupt railroads in the northeast.

Railroads' fortunes changed after the passage of the Staggers Rail Act (1980), which deregulated railroad companies, who had previously faced much stronger regulation than other modes of transportation. With innovations such as trailer-on-flatcar and intermodal freight transport, railroad traffic increased. After the Staggers Act, many railroads merged, forming major systems, such as CSX and Norfolk Southern, in the Eastern United States, and BNSF Railway, in the Western United States; Union Pacific Railroad also purchased some competitors. Another result of the Staggers Act was the rise of shortline railroads, which formed to operate lines that major railroads had abandoned or sold off. Hundreds of these companies were formed by the end of the century. Freight railroads invested in modernization and greater capacity as they entered the 21st century, and intermodal transport continued to grow, while traditional traffic, such as coal, fell.