- Freight Railroad Employees: 2,462
- Freight Railroads: 24
- Freight Rail Mileage: 2,573
- Trucks off the Road: It would have taken 8.1 million trucks to handle the freight that moved by rail in Arkansas in 2024.
Freight Rail in Arkansas
What Moves by Rail
2025 Data
Originated in Arkansas
| Commodity | Million Tons | Units |
| Nonmetallic minerals | 6.2 | 54,300 |
| Steel products | 3.7 | 40,800 |
| Lumber & wood | 1.8 | 19,600 |
| Stone & clay products | 1.1 | 10,000 |
| Food products | 1.0 | 10,300 |
| All other carloads | 6.1 | 64,700 |
| Intermodal | 1.9 | 125,700 |
| Total | 21.7M | 325,400 |
Terminated in Arkansas
| Commodity | Million Tons | Units |
| Coal | 11.9 | 98,000 |
| Waste & scrap | 3.2 | 33,800 |
| Food products | 2.1 | 21,000 |
| Chemicals | 2.0 | 21,600 |
| Farm products | 1.8 | 17,200 |
| All other carloads | 5.1 | 59,500 |
| Intermodal | 1.9 | 147,000 |
| Total | 28.0M | 398,100 |
Carriers Operating in Arkansas
Note: In the list of railroads, mileage includes trackage rights. For Class I railroads, mileage is from the railroads’ R-1 reports to the STB. For short lines, mileage is an AAR estimate based on a variety of sources. The map shows rail lines whose primary owner is a freight railroad or Amtrak. The owner may not be the only operator of the line. The map is based on the FRA’s North American Rail Network (NARN) dataset. Low-mileage short lines may not be labelled on the map. Information current as of mid-2026. Please report any updates, errors, or omissions to policy@aar.org.
Class I Railroad Mileage
| BNSF Railway | 1,056 |
| CPKC | 162 |
| Union Pacific Railroad | 1,324 |
Short Line Railroads
| Arkansas & Missouri Railroad | 111 |
| Arkansas Midland Railroad | 117 |
| Arkansas Southern Railroad | 53 |
| Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi Railroad | 69 |
| Bauxite & Northern Railway | 3 |
| Camden & Southern Railroad | 4 |
| Dardanelle & Russellville Railroad | 5 |
| Delta Valley & Southern Railway | 2 |
| DeQueen and Eastern Railroad | 45 |
| East Camden and Highland Railroad | 54 |
| El Dorado & Wesson Railway | 6 |
| Fort Smith Railroad | 24 |
| Kiamichi Railroad | 56 |
| Little Rock & Western Railway | 68 |
| Little Rock Port Railroad | 12 |
| Louisiana and North West Railroad | 25 |
| Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad | 186 |
| North Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad | 46 |
| Ouachita Railroad | 13 |
| Prescott and Northwestern Railroad | 6 |
| Warren & Saline River Railroad | 2 |
Contacts in Arkansas
Government-affairs leads for the railroads operating in the state.
Note: Data are for 2025 except rail employment and truck equivalents, which are 2024. Total state mileage excludes trackage rights. Data are AAR estimates based on information from various sources.