- Freight Railroad Employees: 2,838
- Freight Railroads: 15
- Freight Rail Mileage: 2,596
- Trucks off the Road: It would have taken 11.1 million trucks to handle the freight that moved by rail in Kentucky in 2024.
Freight Rail in Kentucky
What Moves by Rail
2025 Data
Originated in Kentucky
| BNSF Railway | 98 |
| Canadian National Railway | 98 |
| CSX Transportation | 1,559 |
| Norfolk Southern Railway | 429 |
| Union Pacific Railroad | 12 |
| Class I Total | 2,196 |
Terminated in Kentucky
| Commodity | Million Tons | Units |
| Coal | 13.7 | 116,300 |
| Chemicals | 2.8 | 30,500 |
| Petroleum products | 2.0 | 21,500 |
| Steel products | 1.5 | 17,700 |
| Food products | 0.8 | 8,700 |
| All other carloads | 4.4 | 66,600 |
| Intermodal | 1.4 | 87,700 |
| TOTAL | 26.6M | 349,000 |
Carriers Operating in Kentucky
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 | 98 |
| Canadian National Railway | 98 |
| CSX Transportation | 1,559 |
| Norfolk Southern Railway | 429 |
| Union Pacific Railroad | 12 |
Short Line Railroads
| Fredonia Valley Railroad | 10 |
| Knoxville and Cumberland Gap Railroad | 2 |
| KWT Railway | 11 |
| Louisville & Indiana Railroad | 4 |
| Paducah & Louisville Railway | 280 |
| R. J. Corman Railroad – Bardstown Line | 20 |
| R. J. Corman Railroad – Central Kentucky Lines | 148 |
| R. J. Corman Railroad – Memphis Line | 77 |
| Tennken Railroad | 9 |
| Transkentucky Transportation Railroad | 50 |
Contacts in Kentucky
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.