Railroads Of Today: Class I Map, PSR & the 2026 Industry

Last revised: September 14, 2026

U.S. freight rail in 2026 is six Class I names on a plant of nearly 140,000 miles, plus about 615 short lines and regionals that own the rest. The national network stood at 164,822 miles in 1980 and 136,650 in 2020. Class I railroads still run about two-thirds of those miles, 87 percent of the people, and 94 percent of the revenue. They move on the order of 1.5 billion tons a year and about 40 percent of long-distance ton-miles. Precision Scheduled Railroading is how they run. The Surface Transportation Board is the regulator. Union Pacific’s proposed purchase of Norfolk Southern is still before that Board. The 2020s dates—Canadian Pacific Kansas City, East Palestine, the application itself—are that decade. This page is the industry as it stands.

What follows here is the 2026 map, the operating gospel, the Board, the traffic mix, and the hundreds of smaller railroads that still pick up and set out on the miles the Class Is sold.

Union Pacific SD70ACe 8830 leading westbound freight across the Trinity River bridge with downtown Dallas Texas November 18 2023

Union Pacific SD70ACe 8830 leads several GEs westbound across the Trinity River bridge with downtown Dallas, Texas, in the background on November 18, 2023. Doug Kroll photo.

On this page: At a glance · The 2026 map · How they run · The Surface Transportation Board · What they haul · Short lines and regionals · Passenger on freight rails · The case still open

At a glance

Item	Detail
National freight network	164,822 miles (1980) / 136,650 miles (2020). AAR current talking number: nearly 140,000. Not the Class I miles-of-road series on the decade leaves (91,773 in 2020)
Class I freights, 2026	Six: BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, CPKC. List and thresholds on Class I
Class II and III	About 615 short lines and regionals
Class I share of the industry	About 67% of mileage, 87% of employees, 94% of freight revenue
Direct rail employment	About 153,000. Pay and careers on railroad jobs
Class I pay and benefits	About $135,000 to almost $190,000 a year for a craft package
Private reinvestment, 1980–2024	About $840 billion of railroad money, capital plus maintenance
Average rail rates	Inflation-adjusted revenue per ton-mile 44% lower in 2024 than in 1981
Freight moved	On the order of 1.5 billion tons in a typical year. About 40% of U.S. long-distance ton-miles
Intermodal	About 25% of major-railroad revenue (2023). Largest single traffic segment
Places in the Official Guide	About 75,500 (1916) / 53,000 (1957) / 34,000 (2004)
UP–NS	Announced 2025. Still before the Board as of September 2026. Docket dates on the 2020s
Not this page	2020s dates (CPKC combination day, East Palestine, Floridian, Pan Am). Staggers as a statute. Diesel types. Company encyclopedias

National-network miles 164,822 / 136,650 and the current AAR snapshot from Association of American Railroads, Freight Rail Facts & Figures, and Railroad Facts. Information compiled September 14, 2026.

The 2026 map

Six Class I freight railroads hold the long-haul map. BNSF and Union Pacific split the West. CSX and Norfolk Southern split the East. Canadian National runs a mid-continent U.S. franchise on former Illinois Central, Wisconsin Central, and Grand Trunk iron. Canadian Pacific Kansas City is the north–south railroad, Canada to Mexico on one company. Kansas City Southern is no longer a separate Class I. How CPKC was assembled is the 2020s. What it is, in 2026, is the sixth name on this list.

Chicago is still the hub. All six Class Is operate there. About one freight carload or intermodal unit in four originates, terminates, or passes through that district. The Mississippi remains a rough dividing line for the two U.S. duopolies; the Canadians cross it on purpose. A single-company Atlantic–Pacific freight railroad does not exist. Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have asked the Board to create one. Until the Board rules, the map is six.

The definition and the dollar threshold that makes a railroad Class I—about $1.095 billion in annual operating revenue for 2025, inflation-adjusted by the Board—are Class I railroads. Berkshire Hathaway still owns BNSF. The other five report to public shareholders. Company pages carry the corporate histories.

Norfolk Southern DL and W heritage SD70ACe 1074 leading eastbound train 20H at South Fork Pennsylvania February 21 2026

Norfolk Southern’s DL&W heritage unit, SD70ACe 1074, along with AC44C6M 4887 and 4152, leads eastbound train 20H at South Fork, Pennsylvania, on February 21, 2026. Doug Kroll photo.

Heritage paint is a 2026 fact on a working stack extra. Norfolk Southern’s predecessor schemes date from 2012; that program is the 2010s. The overview is fallen flags. South Fork is the old Pennsylvania Railroad Pittsburgh Line. Train 20H is how the eastern Class I actually looks: six-axle AC power, a rebuilt GEVO in the consist, and a train long enough that the photographer is standing in coal country to see the head end of an intermodal.

How they run

Precision Scheduled Railroading is the operating gospel. Longer trains. Fewer classification yards. Freight that is supposed to leave on a schedule instead of waiting for tonnage. The operating ratio is the scoreboard Wall Street still reads. Two-person road crews are the Class I norm. Positive Train Control is on the passenger and poison-inhalation-hazard mains; the statutory deadlines that put it there are the 2010s. Hunter Harrison’s campaign at Canadian Pacific and CSX is that decade too. What remains in 2026 is the method, applied with more or less rigor depending on the railroad and the year.

Critics still say the method trades resilience and local service for the ratio. The railroads still say the old service-heavy plant could not pay for itself. Both arguments are live. The photograph at Dallas is the result either way: a westbound on Union Pacific’s Texas plant, SD70ACe and Evolution-series GEs, the city in the background, no caboose, no second engine crew. Six-axle AC road power is what moves the tonnage. The locomotive encyclopedia is diesel locomotives.

The Surface Transportation Board

The Surface Transportation Board is the economic regulator of freight railroads. It hears mergers, line sales, and abandonments. It hears rate cases when a shipper can show market dominance and a revenue-to-variable-cost ratio over the statutory line that settled at 180 percent. It enforces the common-carrier obligation. It does not set every rate and it does not run the trains. The 1980 door those powers walk through is Staggers. The Board itself opened on January 1, 1996, when the Interstate Commerce Commission went out; that date is the 1990s.

Up to five members sit, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Board often works with fewer. Major two-Class-I combinations are judged under rules issued in 2001 that ask applicants to show enhanced competition, not only the absence of harm, and to file a service-assurance plan. Those are the rules in force on the Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern application. How the 2001 rules were written is the 2000s. What they do in 2026 is this page. Common carrier as a legal idea is common carrier.

What they haul

Intermodal is the largest single revenue segment for the major railroads, about a quarter of the take. Chemicals, grain and food products, automobiles, metals, forest products, and aggregates pay most of the rest. Coal still moves—railroads still deliver on the order of 70 percent of the coal that reaches U.S. power plants—but it is not half the freight dollar. That mix shifted in the 2010s, when gas generation and environmental rules took the growth out of steam coal. The slide as a decade is the 2010s. The 2026 fact is that an eastbound coal extra and a westbound manifest can still meet on the old Baltimore & Ohio at Fairhope, Pennsylvania, on the same afternoon.

CSX ES44AH 854 on a westbound manifest passing ES44AH 3042 on an eastbound coal train at Fairhope Pennsylvania July 26 2024

CSX ES44AH 854 is on a westbound manifest passing ES44AH 3042 on an eastbound coal drag along the old B&O main line at Fairhope, Pennsylvania, on July 26, 2024. Doug Kroll photo.

A typical year is about 1.5 billion tons. Inflation-adjusted revenue per ton-mile was 44 percent lower in 2024 than in 1981. From 1980 through 2024 the industry put about $840 billion of its own money back into track, bridges, locomotives, and cars. One ton moves nearly 500 miles on a gallon of diesel, on the Association of American Railroads’ usual yardstick.

Short lines and regionals

Class I miles of road are the decade-leaf series: 91,773 in 2020, down from 164,822 in 1980. A large part of that drop is sales, not scrap. About 615 Class II and III railroads run the rest of the plant—first mile, last mile, grain laterals, industrial switching, and a handful of regionals that look like small Class Is trackside. They account for roughly a third of the mileage and a thin slice of the revenue. The overviews are short lines and regionals.

Iowa Interstate ES44AC 518 and 501 making setout and pickup at Silvis Illinois yard July 10 2024

Iowa Interstate ES44AC 518 and 501 lead freight CBBI as the units make their setout and pickup at the Silvis, Illinois, yard on July 10, 2024. Doug Kroll photo.

Iowa Interstate is the former Rock Island Chicago–Council Bluffs main, a Class II regional that still interchanges with every North American Class I. Silvis is the old Rock Island shops. The 1980 liquidation is Rock Island and the 1980s. The 2026 fact is a pair of ES44ACs switching CBBI on a railroad that exists because shippers and a state refused to let that corridor die.

Western New York and Pennsylvania AC4460CW 6002 leading freight OL-3 eastbound near Allegany New York September 15 2023

Western New York & Pennsylvania AC4460CW 6002 leads freight OL-3 eastbound near Allegany, New York, on September 15, 2023. The big GEs have since departed in favor of smaller, more nimble EMD power. Doug Kroll photo.

Western New York & Pennsylvania is the other half of the Staggers map: former Erie and Pennsylvania Railroad miles in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, run as a short-line regional in the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville family. Holding companies—Genesee & Wyoming, Watco, and the independents—own most of the rest. That industry is why a Class I can sell a branch and the grain elevator still has a railroad.

Passenger on freight rails

Amtrak owns a few hundred route-miles, mostly on the Northeast Corridor, and runs the rest of a 21,000-mile system on freight railroads. About 70 percent of Amtrak train-miles are on freight-owned track. Commuter agencies add their own contracts and their own iron. The company encyclopedia is Amtrak. The commuter map is commuter rail. Host congestion, slot agreements, and dispatching priority are the everyday passenger story in 2026. Named-train encyclopedias stay on their slugs.

The case still open

Union Pacific has agreed to buy Norfolk Southern. The companies announced it in 2025, about $85 billion, and told shareholders it would be the first single-company Atlantic–Pacific freight railroad in the United States. The Board accepted the application in 2026. As of September 2026 it has not decided. If the Board says yes, the six-name list will be wrong. If it says no, or yes with conditions that recast the map, that will be a later fact. The docket dates, the dollar figure, and the 2001-rules argument are the 2020s.

The 2026 industry is a smaller plant than 1980, a heavier one than 1980, and a six-railroad Class I club with a north–south Canadian in the middle and a transcontinental case on the table. Precision Scheduled Railroading is the method. The Board is the referee. Iowa Interstate at Silvis and Western New York & Pennsylvania at Allegany are why the miles the Class Is no longer wanted are still in the Official Guide at all.

Sources

Association of American Railroads, Freight Rail Facts & Figures (network nearly 140,000 miles; six Class I railroads and about 615 short lines; Class I share of mileage, employees, and revenue; about 153,000 direct jobs; pay-and-benefit range $135,000–$190,000; about $25 billion private investment a year; about $840 billion reinvested 1980–2024; rates 44% lower in 2024 than in 1981; about 1.5 billion tons in a typical year; about 40% of long-distance ton-miles; intermodal about 25% of major-railroad revenue in 2023; Chicago hub; Amtrak train-miles on freight track)
Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts, national-network snapshot used on this page: 164,822 miles (1980) and 136,650 miles (2020). Class I miles of road 91,773 (2020) stay on the decade leaves
Surface Transportation Board, Class I revenue threshold about $1.095 billion for 2025 (deflator / 49 C.F.R. Part 1201). Major-merger rules, Ex Parte 582 (Sub-No. 1), 2001, as the rules in force
Joseph P. Schwieterman, When the Railroad Leaves Town (Official Guide community counts). Bill Yenne, Atlas of North American Railroads
Live American-Rails Class I, company, short-line, regional, Amtrak, jobs, and decade pages as linked above. UP–NS docket dates on the 2020s page

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