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 13 freight railroads operate over 4,675 miles of track and employ 4,955 in the Sunflower State.* It would have taken approximately 17.5 million additional truckloads to move the 314.4 million tons of freight that moved by rail in Kansas in 2017. Intermodal shipments and farm products make up the majority of freight rail shipments beginning in Kansas. Intermodal shipments and coal are the largest rail imports to the state.
*2017 data
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43 percent
decrease
in rail rates, 1981-2014.
That means the average rail customer today can ship nearly twice as much freight for about the same price it paid more than 30 years ago.
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