Sooner State Growth Riding on Rail
Freight rail brings finished goods and raw materials to Oklahoma’s businesses and transports Oklahoma’s products to the rest of the nation and the world. According to the State Department of Transportation, rail traffic will experience significant growth over the next few decades with the number of trains on some corridors expected to double over the next 20 years.
Oklahoma’s 17 freight railroads operate over 3,158 miles of track and employ 1,960 in the Sooner State.* It would have taken approximately 15.5 million additional truckloads to move the 278.2 million tons of freight that moved by rail in Oklahoma in 2017. Nonmetallic minerals and chemicals make up the majority of freight rail shipments beginning in Oklahoma. Coal is the largest rail import to the state.
*2017 data
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Oklahoma
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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