Transporting freight by rail offers more origin and destination pairs than maritime transportation and increased efficiency in long haul moves compared to trucking.  A single unit train has the carrying capacity of 525 trucks and half that of a 15-barge tow.  Similarly, rail can move one ton of freight 413 miles per gallon of fuel compare to 155 for trucking and 576 for inland maritime. Rail is typically used for long-haul routes; the Association of American Railroads reports that in 2011 the average length of haul was 917.2 miles.  Figure 1 shows both rail-related industry and the Class 1 rail network.  Class 1 railroads are freight railroads with a 2011 operating revenue of $433.2 million or more.

Figure 1: Class I Railroads and Railroad Businesses

Source: Esri Business Analyst, 2011

The total employment for the freight transporting railroad industry is calculated from querying all line-haul and short-line railroads from ESRI’s Business Analyst data set.  The query was not able to completely remove passenger railways because of how the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is constructed.  The total employment reported in Table 1 is an overestimate of the total jobs and businesses that are directly attributable to the transportation of freight via railway.

Table 1: Railroad Businesses and Employment in the MAFC

State	Railroad Employment	Railroad Businesses	Total State Employment	Total Business Count
Iowa	1,493	143	1,607,190	136,378
Illinois	9,465	632	5,884,453	476,575
Indiana	4,665	244	2,938,335	222,320
Kansas	1,848	124	1,407,272	123,790
Kentucky	1,595	169	1,819,898	153,924
Michigan	4,173	346	4,305,125	371,368
Minnesota	2,763	218	2,888,004	221,993
Missouri	3,633	215	2,883,801	239,690
Ohio	6,560	442	5,634,785	413,878
Wisconsin	4,341	183	3,063,309	244,656
MAFC	40,536	2,716	32,432,172	2,604,572

Source: Esri Business Analyst, 2011