Freight Rail Delivers Iowa Ethanol to National and World Markets
Consistently the nation’s leading corn producer, the Hawkeye State also leads the way on ethanol production at about 2 billion gallons per year. With only about 7 percent of ethanol consumed in state, railroads have a key role to play in shipping Iowa ethanol — and other agricultural and manufacturing products — to destinations across North America and for export internationally.
Iowa's 17 freight railroads operate over 3,827 miles of track and employ 2,658 in the Hawkeye State.* It would have taken approximately 15.0 million additional trucks to handle the 269.9 million tons of freight that started, ended, or moved through Iowa in 2021. Moving freight by rail prevented 6.46 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 1.27 million cars off the road or planting 97.9 million trees. Food products and chemicals make up the majority of freight rail shipments beginning in Iowa. Coal is the largest rail import to the state.
*2021 data
