From Small Towns to Global Markets: How Freight Rail Drives Economic Growth Nearly 150 years after the Golden Spike in Promontory Summit, Utah, completed this nation’s first transcontinental railroad, America’s…

How do we protect our environment for future generations? For freight railroads, the answer is by innovating new technologies, investing in new equipment and pioneering new ways of efficiently running our operations. With a private freight rail network that stretches nearly 140,000 miles coast-to-coast, every improvement along the way means a big difference for America’s carbon footprint. Here are just some of the ways freight rail is delivering a greener future for America:

Railroad Jobs: A Highly Skilled & Compensated Workforce Freight rail employees are highly skilled professionals who are among the best-compensated workers in the nation. The industry attracts employees from a…

Freight Rail: Making Modern Life Possible for Consumers Look around you. Freight rail is a crucial part of an integrated network of trains, trucks and barges that ships around 54…

From the car you drive to the food you eat, domestic and international trade helps make American life possible. This trade, which happens across North America, depends on manufacturing and…

Preparedness & Response: Protecting the Freight Rail Network America’s railroads are a critical component of our national infrastructure, moving the people, raw materials and finished goods that make modern life…

Freight Rail Infrastructure & Equipment Safety On average, America’s freight railroads spend $25 billion a year on capital expenditures and maintenance expenses related to locomotives, freight cars, tracks, bridges, tunnels…

How Technology Helps Railroads Move Freight More Efficiently Than Ever Each day, nearly 600 freight railroad companies use a shared fleet of 1.6 million freight cars to move goods for…

Environmentally Friendly Freight Preserving the natural environment is a responsibility railroads take seriously. Freight rail is well ahead of other modes of transportation when it comes to limiting greenhouse gas…

U.S. freight railroads move over two billion tons annually across nearly 140,000-miles of privately owned infrastructure that runs through 49 states. American freight railroads make massive investments across the country…

We all learned it in school: molecules are the basic building blocks of life. Without them, our world as we know it would not exist. In much the same way,…

Freight Rail: The Most Environmentally Friendly Way to Move Freight Over Land Preserving the natural environment is a responsibility railroads take seriously. Freight rail is well ahead of other modes…

Freight Rail’s Powerful Economic Impact Whether selling and building automobiles and houses, powering businesses or enabling manufacturers to reach new customers, American industries rely on freight rail to get raw…

Freight Rail’s Private Investments: Billions of Dollars Annually The U.S. freight rail network moves the raw goods and finished products that fuel the American economy, from the electricity powering businesses…

Freight Rail & Economic Regulation Freight Rail Policy Stance: Freight railroads support a continuation of existing balanced regulatory policies. Why This Matters: The current regulatory framework protects rail customers against…

Environmental Benefits of Moving Freight by Rail Railroads are the most environmentally sound way to move freight over land. On average, trains are four times more fuel efficient than trucks.…

How Intermodal Reinvented Freight Rail After the nation’s first railroad was chartered in 1827, the freight rail industry quickly became the preferred heavy hauler. From grain to coal to steel…

The industry attracts employees from a wide range of backgrounds —from high school graduates to those holding graduate degrees — to help safely transport the raw materials, products and finished goods that sustain the nation’s economy and people. Railroads provide the opportunity to build lifelong careers in fields such as engineering and dispatching, in law enforcement, information technology and industrial development. And with a strong track record of hiring America’s veterans, rail companies are military-friendly employers. Because of high wages and benefits, technical training and professional growth opportunities, freight rail employees often stay in the industry for their entire careers. Many have family railroad legacies that stretch back generations.

Equitable Automation Policy Will Unleash the Future of Transportation Government policy needs to encourage innovation across all modes of transportation. That’s the message the private freight rail industry delivered to…

Freight Rail & International Trade By linking businesses to each other here and abroad, freight railroads have played a crucial role in America’s economic development for more than 185 years.…