USA Railroads is a comprehensive database of the nation's railway system at 1:24,000 to 1:100,000 scale. The data set covers all 50 States plus the District of Columbia.This hosted feature service displays at scales up to 1:1,500,000.

The Rail Network is a comprehensive database of the nation's railway system at the 1:100,000scale or better. The data set covers all 50 States plus the District of Columbia.

© Acknowledgment of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) This layer is sourced from maps.bts.dot.gov.

In the 1800s, the spread of railroads enabled the growth and spread of the United States. Although slow by today’s standards, trains traveled more quickly than other forms of transportation available at the time. By train, it took roughly four days to reach San Francisco from Omaha, Nebraska. By contrast, it had taken covered wagons four to six months, and stagecoaches around a month. In addition to travel, railroads facilitated trade and economic growth. Prior to railroads, people relied on a system of roads and canals for transportation of goods and crops. But this system could be unreliable depending on road conditions, the weather, and many other factors. Trains brought products made in the factories of the East and Midwest to the rest of the country and carried farm produce and livestock to urban markets. The first railroad charter was granted to John Stevens in 1815, and several railroads were in service by 1830. Early rail development was haphazard, financed by individual investors and built without government oversight. Rail gauges, or the distance between rails, could be different depending on the company. This caused a lot of problems for connecting railroads, because only trains designed for that gauge could use those sections of track. Despite miles of track being built, people were generally still skeptical about the usefulness of railroads. In 1843, the Western Railroad of Massachusetts proved to Americans that trains could transport crops and other goods long distances at low costs. By 1861, there were 35,400 kilometers (22,000 miles) of track in the North and only 15,300 kilometers (9,500 miles) in the South. Troops and supplies could be transported quickly using trains. Many battles, like the Battle of Bull Run, were fought over control of Southern railway depots, and tracks were used to move both Confederate and Union soldiers to battles. After the Civil War, railway construction increased significantly. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act with the goal of building a transcontinental railroad. The first, built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company in the West and the Union Pacific in the Midwest, was completed in 1869. Following roughly the route previously taken by the Pony Express and the California Trail, the route was called the Overland Route. Construction was dangerous, as rail crews had to cross mountains, rivers, and other difficult terrain. For this work, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific relied mainly on immigrant labor, recruiting Chinese immigrants in the West and Irish immigrants in the Midwest. Formerly enslaved people and Mormons were also part of these crews. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Chinese workers completed an estimated 90 percent of work on the Central Pacific’s portion of track, facing racism, violence, and discrimination. Chinese workers were often paid less than white workers and were given the most undesirable and dangerous jobs. The Overland Route was one of the first land-grant railroads. To fund construction of such a long and expensive project, the U.S. government gave railroad companies millions of acres of land that they could sell for profit. Following this model, many more railroads were built, including four additional transcontinental railroads. These new railroads took southern and northern routes across the country. In addition to connecting existing cities on the West Coast to the rest of the country, the railroads also influenced where people settled. Trains made multiple stops to refuel, make repairs, and take on more food and water. In return, towns grew around these stops. More than 7,000 cities and towns west of the Missouri River started as Union Pacific depots and water stops. In 1890, the U.S. Bureau of the Census announced that the “Frontier was closed.” The railroads had played a large role in that milestone. This dataset was researched and built by Dr. Jeremy Atack, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University. His procedure and sources, as well as downloadable files, are documented here.

The North American Rail Network (NARN) Rail Lines: Class I Freight Railroads View dataset is from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). This dataset is a subset of the NARN Rail Lines dataset that show the ownership and trackage rights for all the Class I freight railroads: “Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF),†"Canadian National (CN) Railway," "Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway," "CSX Transportation," "Norfolk Southern (NS) Railway," "Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway," and "Union Pacific (UP)". It is derived from the North American Rail Network (NARN) Lines dataset, and for more information please consult, https://doi.org/10.21949/1519415. The NARN Rail Lines dataset is a database that provides ownership, trackage rights, type, passenger, STRACNET, and geographic reference for North America's railway system at 1:24,000 or better within the United States. The data set covers all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada. A data dictionary, or other source of attribute information, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.21949/1528950

The SPATIAL LOCATION of railroads/ is based upon locations as given in the National Transportation Atlas Database (United States Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics) and contemporary and historical U.S. topographical maps (United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey)./The EXISTENCE of a railroad serving locations at a specific date (see variable "InOpBy") was determined using the following resources: 1911: state maps from William D. Whitney and Benjamin E. Smith (eds) The Century dictionary and cyclopedia, with a new atlas of the world, New York: Century Co., 1911 (using scanned images from http://www.goldbug.com); 1903: regional maps from Rand McNally, Rand McNally & Co.'s Enlarged Business Atlas And Shippers' Guide ... Showing In Detail The Entire Railroad System ... Accompanied By A New And Original Compilation And Ready Reference Index…, Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1903 (using images 2844006, 2844007 and 2844008 from http://www.davidrumey.com); 1898: regional maps from Rand McNally, United States. Rand, McNally & Co., Map Publishers and Engravers, Chicago, 1898. Rand, McNally & Co.'s New Business Atlas Map of the United States…, Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1898 (using images 0772003, 0772004 and 0772005 from http://www.davidrumey.com); 1893: state maps from Rand McNally and Company, Rand, McNally & Co.'s enlarged business atlas and shippers guide ; containing large-scale maps of all the states and territories in the United States, of the Dominion of Canada, the Republic of Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and Cuba. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1893 (images courtesy of Murray Hudson, www.antiquemapsandglobes.com) except for Louisiana, Maryland/Delaware, Michigan, and Mississippi which were taken from Rand McNally, Universal Atlas of the World, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1893 (images courtesy of the University of Alabama Cartographic Lab) and Texas which was digitized by Amanda Gregg from Rand McNally & Co. Indexed county and railroad pocket map and shippers' guide of Texas : accompanied by a new and original compilation and ready reference index, showing in detail the entire railroad system ...Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., c1893 (Yale University Beinecke Library, Call Number: Zc52 893ra); 1889: state maps from Rand McNally, Rand, McNally & Co.'s enlarged business atlas and shippers guide…, Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1889 (using images 2094016 through 2094062 from http://www.davidrumey.com); 1881: state maps from Rand McNally, New Indexed Business Atlas and Shippers Guide, Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1881 (photographed by Amanda Gregg from a copy in the Yale University Beinecke Library, 2009 Folio 63); 1877: state maps from Rand McNally and Company, Rand McNally & Co’s Business Atlas, Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1877 (digitized by Matthew Van den Berg from a copy in the Library of Congress, Call no. G1200 .R3358 1877); 1872: regional maps from Warner & Beers, Atlas of the United States, Chicago: Warner & Beers, 1872 (using images 2585069 through 2585078 from http://www.davidrumey.com);1868: national map by J. T. Lloyd, Lloyd's New Map of the United States The Canadas and New Brunswick From The Latest Surveys Showing Every Railroad & Station Finished … 1868, New York: J. T. Lloyd, 1868 (using image 2859002 from http://www.davidrumey.com)1863: national map by J. T. Lloyd, Lloyd's New Map of the United States The Canadas And New Brunswick From the latest Surveys Showing Every Railroad & Station Finished to June 1863, New York: J. T. Lloyd, 1863 (using image 2591002 from http://www.davidrumey.com)1861: regional maps by G. R. Taylor and Irene D. Neu, The American Railroad Network 1861-1890, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1956;1858: national map by Hugo Stammann, J. Sage & Son's new & reliable rail road map comprising all the railroads of the United States and Canadas with their stations and distances, Buffalo, NY: J Sage & Sons, 1858 using image rr000360 from the Library of Congress at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3701p.rr000360;1856: national map by Richard S. Fisher, Dinsmore's complete map of the railroads & canals in the United States & Canada carefully compiled from authentic sources by Richard S. Fisher, editor of the American Rail Road & Steam Navigation Guide, New York, 1856 using image rr000300 from the Library of Congress at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3701p.rr000300;1854: national map by E. D. Sanford, H. V. Poor's rail road map showing particularly the location and connections of the North East & South West Alabama Rail Road, by E. D. Sanford, Civil Engineer, n.p.: 1854 using image rr004950 from the Library of Congress at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3701p.rr004950;1852: national map by J. H. Colton, Colton's Map Of The United States, The Canadas &c. Showing The Rail Roads, Canals & Stage Roads: With Distances from Place to Place, New York: J. H. Colton, 1852 (using image 0172002 from http://www.davidrumey.com)1850 and earlier dates: Curran Dinsmore, Dinsmore & Company's new and complete map of the railway system of the United States and Canada; compiled from official sources, under the direction of the editor of the "American Railway Guide.", New York: 1850, the early railroad database assembled by Professor Milton C. Hallberg (deceased, Pensylvania State University) and appearing on http://oldrailhistory.com/, various railroad histories, on-line google search results and Wikipedia entries for specific railroads appearing in Hallberg’s database. Digitized maps were geo-referenced using ArcGIS 10’s spline algorithm against the National Historical Geographic Information System’s 2009 TIGER-based historical state and county boundary files (see www.nhgis.org) and the U.S. National Atlas’s database of cities and town.No effort was made to identify or preserve double tracking. Sidings, yards, and turnouts, etc., were deleted whenever possible absent any knowledge as to when these features were constructed.See Jeremy Atack "Procedures and Issues Relating to the Creration of Historical Transportation Shapfiles of Navigabale Rivers, Canals, and Railroads in the United States" available at https://my.vanderbilt.edu/jeremyatack/files/2015/09/HistoricalTransportationSHPfilesDocumenation.pdf. Also Jeremy Atack, "On the Use of Geographic Informations Systems in Economic History" Journal of Economic History, 73:2 (June 2013): 313-338. Also available at https://my.vanderbilt.edu/jeremyatack/files/2011/08/EHAPresidentialAddress.pdfRevision History: Edited = 1 ==> minor modifications by Jeremy Atack, September 20, 2015 amending dates for "InOpBy" and/or endpoints to fix microfractures and inconsistencies,1861 or earlier.= 2 ==> JA; 9/21/2015 switched dates and names (1861-1903) on Charleston & Savannah RR just west of Ashley River to accurately reflect LOC map for this RR= 3 ==> JA: 12/22/2015 modification to RR dates and locations around Baltimore, New York city, Philadelphia and Washington DC reflecting (some but not all) of the 1860 mapping by C. Baer et al., Canals and Railroads of the Mid-Atlantic States, 1800-1860 (Hagley Foundation 1981)SHP file edited 5/9/2016 to fix error message in ArcCatalog caused by 4 "phantom" features (InOpBy=blank/zero) that had no geometry associated with them.

The North American Rail Network (NARN) Rail Nodes dataset was created in 2016 and was updated on April 09, 2025 from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The NARN Rail Nodes dataset is a database of North America's railway system at 1:24,000 or better within the United States. The data set covers all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada. The dataset holds topology of the network and provides geographic location information. A data dictionary, or other source of attribute information, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.21949/1529070

As one of the cornerstones of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geospatial Program, The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. This transportation service depicts railroads based on TIGER/Line data provided through U.S. Census Bureau and road data from U.S. Forest Service. Data include freight lines of the railroad system in the United States, including some light rail and commuter rail lines.. For display and cartographic purposes, please refer to the USGS reference layer for Railroad Labels.Please note that some of the TIGER/Line data includes limited corrections done by USGS. The datasets managed by the U.S. Census Bureau and uncorrected by the USGS are available as map services that include coarse-scale Railroads. The National Map download client allows free downloads of public domain transportation data in either Esri File Geodatabase or Shapefile formats. Additional information on the transportation data model are also available through The National Map.

The North American Rail Network (NARN) Rail Lines: CPKC View dataset is from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). This dataset is a subset of the NARN Rail Lines dataset that represents the ownership and trackage rights for the Class I railroad “Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).†PLEASE NOTE: “Canadian Pacific (CP)†and “Kansas City Southern (KCS)†have merged per a business prospective to form “Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).†However, this is not yet reflected in the North American Rail Network (NARN) until the dispatching is unified. This view layer has combined “Canadian Pacific (CP)†and “Kansas City Southern (KCS)†per their ownerships and trackage rights as stipulated in the NARN. It is derived from the North American Rail Network (NARN) Lines dataset, and for more information please consult, https://doi.org/10.21949/1519415. The NARN Rail Lines dataset is a database that provides ownership, trackage rights, type, passenger, STRACNET, and geographic reference for North America's railway system at 1:24,000 or better within the United States. The data set covers all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada. A data dictionary, or other source of attribute information, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.21949/1528950

This line shapefile includes Global Map data showing railroads in the conterminous United States and Alaska. The data are a modified version of the National Atlas of the United States 1:1,000,000-Scale Railroads of the United States. This layer is part of the 1997-2014 edition of the National Atlas of the United States.

The 4,216-mile rail system in Kansas plays an essential freight transportation role both within the state and nationally. Kansas’ location and position on principal rail corridors provides rail access to every region of the U.S., as well as to Canada and Mexico. Additionally, the Class I railroads operating in Kansas provide access to international ports through the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Kansas ranks in the top 15 among states in the following categories: total miles of rail (6th); rail tons carried (6th); and rail carloads carried (8th). Kansas ranks 6th in farm products originating by state.Also included in this data is the abandoned railroads.Freight and RailMore information about the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) can be found at the following URL: ksdot.org.

The North American Rail Network (NARN) Rail Lines: BNSF View dataset is from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). This dataset is a subset of the NARN Rail Lines dataset that show the ownership and trackage rights for the Class I railroad “Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF).†It is derived from the North American Rail Network (NARN) Lines dataset, and for more information please consult, https://doi.org/10.21949/1519415. The NARN Rail Lines dataset is a database that provides ownership, trackage rights, type, passenger, STRACNET, and geographic reference for North America's railway system at 1:24,000 or better within the United States. The data set covers all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada. A data dictionary, or other source of attribute information, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.21949/1528950

A joint venture involving the National Atlas programs in Canada (Natural Resources Canada), Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía), and the United States (U.S. Geological Survey), as well as the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, has led to the release (June 2004) of several new products: an updated paper map of North America, and its associated geospatial data sets and their metadata. These data sets are available online from each of the partner countries for download.The North American Environmental Atlas data are standardized geospatial data sets at 1:10,000,000 scale. A variety of basic data layers (e.g., roads, railroads, populated places, political boundaries, hydrography, bathymetry, sea ice and glaciers) have been integrated so that their relative positions are correct. This collection of data sets forms a base with which other North American thematic data may be integrated. Any data outside of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America included in the North American Environmental Atlas data sets is strictly to complete the context of the data.The North American Environmental Atlas - Railroads data set shows the railroads of North America at 1:10,000,000 scale. The railroads selected for this data set are either rail links between major centers of population or major resource railways. There is no classification of rail lines. This is a revised version of the 2004 data set.Files Download

Abstract: This map layer includes railroads in the conterminous United States and Alaska. This is a replacement for the December 1998 map layer. Purpose: These data are intended for geographic display and analysis at the national level, and for large regional areas. The data should be displayed and analyzed at scales appropriate for 1:2,000,000 data. No responsibility is assumed by the National Atlas of the United States in the use of these data.

Network of Texas Railroads pulled from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) North American Rail Network (NARN) Rail Lines publicly available data. The data was clipped to the Texas State Boundary and queried to a records subset based on "current status or condition of rail line" as populated in the "NET" attribute. Additional fields were added and populated to adhere to TxDOT requirements and purposes.Update Frequency: 1 MonthsSource: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)Security Level: PublicOwned by TxDOT: FalseRelated LinksFRA NARN Source DataTexas Railroads (Deprecated)Data Dictionary PDF [Generated 2025/04/29]

Bridges-Rail in the United States According to The National Bridge Inspection Standards published in the Code of Federal Regulations (23 CFR 650.3), a bridge is: A structure including supports erected over a depression or an obstruction, such as water, highway, or railway, and having a track or passageway for carrying traffic or other moving loads. Each bridge was captured as a point which was placed in the center of the "main span" (highest and longest span). For bridges that cross navigable waterways, this was typically the part of the bridge over the navigation channel. If no "main span" was discernable using the imagery sources available, or if multiple non contiguous main spans were discernable, the point was placed in the center of the overall structure. Bridges that are sourced from the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) that cross state boundaries are an exception. Bridges that cross state boundaries are represented in the NBI by two records. The points for the two records have been located so as to be within the state indicated by the NBI's [STATE_CODE] attribute. In some cases, following these rules did not place the point at the location at which the bridge crosses what the user may judge as the most important feature intersected. For example, a given bridge may be many miles long, crossing nothing more than low lying ground for most of its length but crossing a major interstate at its far end. Due to the fact that bridges are often high narrow structures crossing depressions that may or may not be too narrow to be represented in the DEM used to orthorectify a given source of imagery, alignment with ortho imagery is highly variable. In particular, apparent bridge location in ortho imagery is highly dependent on collection angle. During verification, TechniGraphics used imagery from the following sources: NGA HSIP 133 City, State or Local; NAIP; DOQQ imagery. In cases where "bridge sway" or "tall structure lean" was evident, TGS attempted to compensate for these factors when capturing the bridge location. For instances in which the bridge was not visible in imagery, it was captured using topographic maps at the intersection of the water and rail line. TGS processed 784 entities previously with the HSIP Bridges-Roads (STRAHNET Option - HSIP 133 Cities and Gulf Coast). These entities were added into this dataset after processing. No entities were included in this dataset for American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands because there are no main line railways in these areas. At the request of NGA, text fields in this dataset have been set to all upper case to facilitate consistent database engine search results. At the request of NGA, leading and trailing spaces were trimmed from all text fields. At the request of NGA, all diacritics (e.g., the German umlaut or the Spanish tilde) have been replaced with their closest equivalent English character to facilitate use with database systems that may not support diacritics. The currentness of this dataset is given by the publication date which is 09/02/2009. A more precise measure of currentness cannot be provided since this is dependent on the NBI and the source of imagery used during processing.

North American Rail Network LinesThis Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) feature layer, utilizing National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) data, displays the North American Rail Network (NARN). Per BTS, "NARN Rail Lines dataset was created...from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and is part of the...National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). It is a database that provides ownership, trackage rights, type, passenger, STRACNET, and geographic reference for North America's railway system...within the United States. The data set covers all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada.It can be used within the public, the federal government, rail industry, state DOTs, and academia for routing, mapping and analysis."Main sub network (ID #383590)Data currency: Current Federal service (NTAD North American Rail Network Lines)NGDAID: 145 (North American Rail Network Lines)For more information: North American Rail Network Lines; Rail Network DevelopmentSupport documentation: North American Rail Network LinesFor feedback please contact: Esri_US_Federal_Data@esri.comNGDA Data SetThis data set is part of the NGDA Transportation Theme Community. Per the Federal Geospatial Data Committee (FGDC), Transportation is defined as the "means and aids for conveying persons and/or goods. The transportation system includes both physical and non-physical components related to all modes of travel that allow the movement of goods and people between locations".For other NGDA Content: Esri Federal Datasets

A joint venture involving the National Atlas programs in Canada (Natural Resources Canada), Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática), and the United States (U.S. Geological Survey), as well as the North American Commission for Environmental Co-operation, has led to the release (June 2004) of several new products: an updated paper map of North America, and its associated geospatial data sets and their metadata. These data sets are available online from each of the partner countries both for visualization and download. The North American Atlas data are standardized geospatial data sets at 1:10,000,000 scale. A variety of basic data layers (e.g. roads, railroads, populated places, political boundaries, hydrography, bathymetry, sea ice and glaciers) have been integrated so that their relative positions are correct. This collection of data sets forms a base with which other North American thematic data may be integrated. Any data outside of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America included in the North American Atlas data sets is strictly to complete the context of the data. The North American Atlas - Railroads data set shows the railroads of North America at 1:10,000,000 scale. The railroads selected for this data set are either rail links between major centres of population or major resource railways. There is no classification of rail lines. This data set was produced using digital files supplied by Natural Resources Canada, Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Historic rail line locations throughout Pierce County sourced from Washington State Archive and Bureau of Land Management historic maps dated from 1850's to 2010. Please read metadata for additional information (https://matterhorn.co.pierce.wa.us/GISmetadata/pdbplan_historic_railroads.html). Any data download constitutes acceptance of the Terms of Use (https://matterhorn.co.pierce.wa.us/Disclaimer/PierceCountyGISDataTermsofUse.pdf).

These files are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the 1995 TIGER/Line files detailing railroads. This dataset includes railroad tracks, railroad main lines, railroad spurs, railroad yards, railroad ferry crossings, car lines, and cog railroads.

This map contains all the USA railroad tracks data. It is zoomed in on the City of Rochester and the nearby area. Data showing on the map includes: FRA IDFRA RegionStateSubdivisionRailroad OwnerNumber of TracksNetwork DescriptionPassenger LineMiles