US Railroad Map
Description : This map depicts the railroad network laid across USA.
About Rail Network of USA
Railroads played an instrumental role in opening up vast tracts of territory in the early days of settler America but today rail traffic has been overtaken by airplanes and automobiles. The United States has a very mobile population and many of them prefer to either fly or hit the road.
Even freight traffic that was initially dependent on the vast railroad network is today dominated by highway trucks and other road carriers.
The railroad network nevertheless still move around a third of the country's freight traffic with the most important goods carried by them including coal, grain, chemicals and motor vehicles. They in fact play a significant role in transporting coal and raw materials from mines to the manufacturing sites of industrial America. Most railroad companies have however discontinued passenger services in the face of stiff competition from airlines and bus companies. The only significant passenger rail services in America today are operated by the government supported National Railroad Passenger Corporation or Amtrak , which was formed in 1970.The Amtrak system, headquartered in Washington DC, covers a network of 21,000 miles that link over 500 rail stations across the length and breadth of the United States of America.
Union Pacific Railroad : The largest railroad network in the United States, the Union Pacific is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska and connects the eastern states and the Mississippi region with the country's Pacific coast.
BNSF Railway : The BNSF Railway is a transcontinental network headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It connects the Pacific Coast of the United States with Chicago and other cities in the Mississippi river belt extending eastwards as far as Alabama.
CSX Transportation : The CSX serves mainly eastern United States including the states on the Atlantic seaboard.
Kansas City Southern Railway : As its name suggests the Kansas City Southern Railway is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri and runs from Kansas City to the Gulf of Mexico.
Norfolk Southern Railway :The Norfolk Southern Railway is another American railroad that covers extensively the eastern United States including the Great Lakes area and the Atlantic seaboard states.