New Jersey and Freight Rail: Perfect Together
Freight rail plays a key role in making the Port of New York and New Jersey the East Coast’s busiest. The fact that one train can carry the load of several hundred trucks while moving a ton of cargo nearly 500 miles on a single gallon of fuel also means freight rail helps keep the Garden State green.
New Jersey's 20 freight railroads operate over 1,087 miles of track and employ 887 in the Garden State.* It would have taken approximately 2.7 million additional trucks to handle the 48.2 million tons of freight that started, ended, or moved through New Jersey in 2021. Moving freight by rail prevented 3.19 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 625,000 cars off the road or planting 48.3 million trees. Intermodal and waste and scrap materials comprise the majority of freight rail shipments beginning in New Jersey. Intermodal and chemicals are the state's largest rail imports.
*2021 data
