Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
BTS Home > Publications > National Transportation Statistics
Printable Version

Rail Profile

Excel | CSV

FINANCIAL

  1960 1970f 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 (R) 2005 2006
Class I a,1                                  
Operating revenues, total ($ millions)  9,514 11,992 28,258 28,370 30,809 32,280 32,693 33,118 33,151 33,521 34,102 34,576 35,327 36,639 40,517 46,118 52,152
Passenger 640 421 446 94 88 89 59 60 61 61 62 62 61 62 63 65 70
Freight 8,025 10,922 26,350 27,471 29,931 31,356 31,889 32,322 32,247 32,680 33,083 33,533 34,110 35,413 39,131 44,457 50,315
Other 849 649 1,462 805 790 835 745 736 843 780 957 981 1,155 1,164 1,323 1,597 1,767
Operating expenses ($ millions)b 8,775 11,478 26,355 24,652 25,511 27,897 26,331 27,291 27,916 28,011 29,040 29,164 29,592 31,440 35,107 37,843 40,980
Amtrakc,2                                  
Total revenue ($ millions) N 162 429 1,308 1,413 1,490 1,550 1,669 2,244 2,011 2,111 2,109 2,228 (R) 1,994 (R) 1,865 1,886 2,042
Total expenses ($ millions) N 301 1,103 2,012 2,246 2,257 2,258 2,359 2,548 2,660 2,876 3,288 3,224 (R) 3,100 (R) 2,950 2,940 3,005

INVENTORY

  1960 1970f 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 (R) 2005 2006
Class Ia, 1                                  
Number of vehicles, total (R) 1,994,517 (R) 1,811,258 (R) 1,738,921 (R) 1,231,096 (R) 1,210,917 (R) 1,237,739 (R) 1,259,842 (R) 1,290,103 (R) 1,335,928 (R) 1,389,092 (R) 1,400,824 (R) 1,333,881 (R) 1,320,176 (R) 1,299,751 (R) 1,309,935 1,335,024 1,370,239
Class I freight cars 1,658,292 1,423,921 1,168,114 658,902 590,930 583,486 570,865 568,493 575,604 579,140 560,154 499,860 477,751 467,063 473,773 474,839 475,415
Other nonclass I freight cars 307,194 360,260 542,713 553,359 601,482 635,441 669,708 701,926 740,063 789,696 820,642 814,276 821,919 811,917 814,147 837,406 871,092
Number of Locomotives 29,031 27,077 28,094 18,835 18,505 18,812 19,269 19,684 20,261 20,256 20,028 19,745 20,506 20,771 22,015 22,779 23,732
Number of companies 106 71 38 14 12 11 10 9 9 9 8 8 7 7 7 7 7
Number of employees 780,494 566,282 458,994 216,424 189,962 188,215 181,809 177,981 178,222 177,557 168,360 162,155 157,372 154,652 157,699 162,438 167,581
Miles of road owned 207,334 196,479 164,822 119,758 109,332 108,264 105,779 102,128 100,570 99,430 99,250 (R) 97,817 (R) 100,125 (R) 99,126 (R) 97,662 95,830 94,614
Amtrak                                  
Number of passenger vehicles3                                  
Train-cars N 1,569 2,128 1,863 1,852 1,722 1,730 1,728 1,962 1,992 1,894 2,084 2,896 1,623 1,211 1,186 1,191
Locomotives N 185 419 318 338 313 299 332 345 329 378 401 372 442 276 258 319
Number of employees4 N 1,500 21,416 24,000 25,049 23,646 23,278 23,555 24,528 25,291 25,624 27,316 22,649 20,905 20,938 19,234 18,659
System route mileage5 N N 24,000 24,000 25,000 24,000 25,000 25,000 22,000 23,000 23,000 23,000 23,000 22,675 22,256 22,007 21,708

PERFORMANCE

  1960 1970f 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 (R) 2005 2006
Class Ia                                  
Car mileage, freight (thousands)1 28,170,000 29,890,000 29,277,000 26,159,000 28,485,000 30,383,000 31,715,000 31,660,000 32,657,000 33,851,000 34,590,000 34,243,000 34,680,000 35,555,000 37,071,000 37,712,000 38,955,000
Train mileage, freight (thousands)1 404,464 427,065 428,498 379,582 440,896 458,271 468,792 474,954 474,947 490,442 504,001 499,546 499,668 515,999 534,696 547,566 562,607
Locomotive mileage, total (thousands)6 N N 1,531,050 1,280,365 1,404,706 1,444,691 1,465,149 1,423,229 1,439,703 1,503,947 1,502,819 1,477,546 1,443,531 1,484,074 1,538,385 U U
Freight  421,900 1,278,200 1,319,010 1,144,559 1,261,482 1,293,851 1,311,351 1,281,768 1,285,706 1,349,580 1,354,590 1,327,669 1,300,574 1,353,885 1,398,450 U U
Train and yard switching N N 212,040 135,806 143,224 150,840 153,798 141,461 153,997 154,367 148,229 149,876 142,957 130,190 139,935 U U
Revenue ton-miles of freight (millions)1 572,309 764,809 918,958 1,033,969 1,200,701 1,305,688 1,355,975 1,348,926 1,376,802 1,433,461 1,465,960 1,495,472 1,507,011 1,551,438 1,662,598 1,696,425 1,771,897
Average length of haul, freight (miles)1 461 515 616 726 817 843 842 851 835 835 843 859 853 862 902 894 906
Fuel consumed in freight service (million gallons)1 3,463 3,545 3,904 3,115 3,334 3,480 3,579 3,575 3,583 3,715 3,700 3,710 3,730 3,826 4,059 4,098 4,192
Average miles traveled per vehicle                                  
Car 14,124 16,502 16,836 21,249 23,523 24,547 25,174 24,541 24,445 24,369 24,693 25,672 26,269 27,355 28,300 28,248 28,429
Locomotive N N 54,497 67,978 75,910 76,796 76,037 72,304 71,058 74,247 75,036 74,831 70,396 71,449 69,879 U U
Average miles traveled per gallon                                  
Car 8.13 8.43 7.50 8.40 8.54 8.73 8.86 8.86 9.11 9.11 9.35 9.23 9.30 9.29 9.13 9.20 9.29
Train 0.12 0.12 0.11 0.12 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13
Amtrak                                  
Passenger train car-miles (millions)7 N 213 235 301 304 292 276 288 312 342 371 378 379 332 308 265 264
Passenger train-miles (millions)2 N 26 30 33 34 32 30 32 33 34 35 36 38 37 37 36 36
Passenger locomotive-miles (millions)2 N N 41 49 51 48 U U U U U U U U U U U
Revenue passengers carried (millions)2 N 17 21 22 21 21 20 20 21 22 23 24 23 25 25 25 25
Revenue passenger-miles (millions)2 N 3,039 4,503 6,057 5,921 5,545 5,050 5,166 5,304 5,330 5,498 5,559 5,314 5,680 5,511 5,381 5,410
Average passenger fare (dollars)2 N 8.30 17.72 38.50 39.10 39.92 43.31 45.26 44.75 46.85 49.61 51.58 56.05 57.78 56.81 58.29 65.43
Average passenger revenue / passenger-mile (cents)2 N 4.5 8.2 14.1 14.0 14.9 16.9 17.7 17.8 18.9 20.3 21.8 24.5 25.0 26.0 27.16 29.69
Average passenger trip length (miles)2 N 182.6 217.0 273.0 279.3 267.9 256.3 255.7 251.4 247.9 244.4 236.6 228.4 230.9 218.6 214.6 220.4
Locomotive fuel consumed8                                  
Diesel (million gallons) N N 64 82 75 66 71 75 75 74 76 75 86 78 70 68 U
Electric kWh (millions) N N 254 330 309 304 293 282 275 283 350 377 593 666 648 500 U

SAFETY d,9

  1960 1970f 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 (R) 2005 2006
Number of fatalities, railroads and grade crossings, total 2,345 2,331 1,424 1,300 1,226 1,146 1,039 1,063 1,008 932 937 971 951 (R) 868 (R) 895 887 910
Passengers on Trains 34 10 4 3 5 0 12 6 4 14 4 3 7 3 3 16 2
Employees on duty 215 179 97 40 31 34 33 37 27 31 24 22 20 19 25 25 16
Employees not on duty N N 4 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0
Trespassers 637 607 566 700 682 660 620 646 644 570 570 673 646 634 (R) 621 600 665
Nontrespassers 1,459 1,535 746 554 505 443 365 363 326 305 (R) 335 269 (R) 267 (R) 206 (R) 242 241 220
Contractor employees N N 7 3 3 7 9 11 5 12 3 4 10 5 4 5 7
Grade crossing only 1,421 1,440 772 698 615 579 488 461 431 402 425 421 357 334 (R) 372 358 369
Railroad onlye 924 785 645 599 611 567 551 602 577 530 512 550 594 (R) 534 (R) 523 529 541

KEY: kWh = kilowatt-hour; N = data do not exist; R = revised; U = data are not available.

a Excluding Amtrak and all non-Class I railroads, except for Section IV.

b Operating expenses include equipment, joint facility rents, leased roads and equipment, and all taxes except Federal income.

c Data for 2003 indicates operating revenues and expenses instead of total revenues and expenses, the data source has changed.

d Safety figures from U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration are for all railroads.

e Figures may not appear directly in data source.

f Amtrak data in this column are for 1972, Amtrak's first full year of operation.

NOTE

Amtrak figures are based on Amtrak fiscal year (October 1-September 30).

SOURCES

(Unless otherwise noted, refer to chapter tables for sources)

1 Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts 2006 (Washington, DC: 2004), pp. 3, 9, 10, 27, 33, 34, 36, 40, 49, 52, 77 and similar pages in earlier issues.

2 1970-2006: Amtrak, National Railroad Passenger Corporation Annual Report, Statistical Appendix to Amtrak Annual Report, Annual issues.

3 1970-80: Amtrak, National Railroad Passenger Corporation Annual Report,1972, 1980, 1990, and 1993-95. 1990-2000: Ibid., National Railroad Passenger Corporation Annual Report, Statistical Appendix to Amtrak Annual Report, Annual issues. 2001-05: Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts 2006 (Washington, DC, 2006), p.77.

4 1970-90: Amtrak, Public Affairs, personal communication. 1994-1997: Ibid., National Railroad Passenger Corporation Annual Report,1972, 1980, 1990, and 1993-95. 1998-2005: Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts 2006 (Washington, DC: 2006), p. 77 and similar pages in earlier issues.

5 1980-90: Amtrak, Route Miles by Railroad, Corp. Planning & Development. 1994-2001: Amtrak, National Railroad Passenger Corporation Annual Report, Statistical Appendix to Amtrak Annual Report, Annual issues. 2002-05: Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts 2006 (Washington, DC, 2006), p. 77.

6 1980-2001: Association of American Railroads, Analysis of Class 1 Railroads (Washington, DC: Annual issues). 2002-04: Ibid., Railroad Ten-Year Trends (Washington, DC: 2005), pp. 119 and 121, personal communication, Feb. 16, 2005.

7 1970-90: Amtrak, Train Information System Reports. 1994-99: Amtrak Corporate Reporting, Route Profitability System, Washington DC, personal communication, August 2001. 2000-05: Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts 2006 (Washington, DC: 2006), p. 77 and similar pages in earlier issues.

8 Amtrak General Accounting, Pennsylvania, personal communication, June 1999. 2002-05: Amtrak, personal communications, Dec. 9, 2005 and Dec. 19, 2007

9 1960-80: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Systems Support Division, RRS-22, personal communication. 1990-94: Ibid., Accident / Incident Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), tables 7 and 9. 1995-2005: Ibid., Interim Railroad Safety Statistics, Annual Report 2005 (Washington, DC: 2005), table 1-3, and similar tables in earlier editions. 2006: Ibid, Office of Safety Analysis, table 4.08, at http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/Default.asp as of Dec. 12, 2007.
Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) • U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT)
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE • Washington, DC 20590 • 800-853-1351 • E-mail RITA

Accessibility | Disclaimer | Fast Lane | FedStats | Freedom of Information Act | No FEAR Act | OIG Hotline | Privacy Policy | RSS | USA.gov | White House | Wireless

Plug-ins: PDF Reader | Flash Player | Excel Viewer | PowerPoint Viewer | Word Viewer | WinZip

RITA's privacy policies and procedures do not necessarily apply to external web sites. We suggest contacting these sites directly for information on their data collection and distribution policies.