Sunflower State the Heartland of American Freight Rail
Kansas is much more than just the geographic center of the national rail network. With a distinguished rail history focused on moving wheat to customers worldwide, as well as massive recent rail investments into busy intermodal facilities, Kansas is also the economic heart of freight rail.
Kansas's 16 freight railroads operate over 4,652 miles of track and employ 4,850 in the Sunflower State.* It would have taken approximately 18.2 million additional truckloads to move the 327.3 million tons of freight that moved by rail in Kansas in 2019. Moving freight by rail prevented 4.58 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 898,000 cars off the road or planting 63.4 million trees. Intermodal shipments and farm products make up the majority of freight rail shipments beginning in Kansas. Intermodal shipments are the largest rail imports to the state.
*2019 data
