Largest railroad companies: North America's biggest railroads by revenue and by work hours

This list is for suppliers, sellers, analysts and job seekers who need to know which railroads are biggest and how they compare. The first table ranks North America's largest railroad companies by revenue in their 2025 annual reports. The second ranks every railroad operating in the US by the hours its employees worked in 2025, from the reports each one files with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which is the only source that covers freight, passenger, commuter and short-line railroads on the same basis.

The largest railroad companies by revenue

Revenue is total operating revenue as each company's 10-K, 40-F, MD&A or audited financial statements state it. CN and CPKC report in Canadian dollars, converted at the Federal Reserve's 2025 average of 1.3973 per US dollar (G.5A, 5 January 2026); both run large networks in the US and Canada, and CPKC in Mexico. Amtrak's revenue excludes federal and state grants. BNSF files its own 10-K as Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary.

A few things the revenue table shows:

• The top two are a near tie. Union Pacific reported $24,510 million and BNSF $23,421 million. Union Pacific's revenue grew 1%; BNSF's was flat.
• CSX shrank. Its revenue fell $448 million, or 3%, to $14,092 million. Norfolk Southern's rose 0.5% to $12,180 million.
• A merger is pending. Union Pacific's 10-K describes its pending acquisition of Norfolk Southern, which needs approval from the Surface Transportation Board. Combined, the two reported $36.7 billion of revenue for 2025.

The largest railroads in the US by hours worked

Every railroad operating in the US files a monthly report with the FRA giving its employees' hours and its train miles, for safety statistics. Totaled for 2025:

Source: FRA Injury/Illness Summary, Operational Data (Form 55), on data.transportation.gov, 2025 reports totaled by reporting railroad or holding company. Hours are employees' hours on US operations; contractors are excluded. Full-time equivalents are hours divided by 2,080, our calculation, and are only a rough guide to headcount.

Across the US, 838 railroads reported 376.8 million employee hours and 607.4 million train miles for 2025. The five largest worked 243.3 million of those hours, 65% of the total.

The FRA figures cross-check well against the 10-Ks: Union Pacific's 57.6 million hours equal about 27,700 full-time equivalents against the 29,287 average employees in its 10-K, and Norfolk Southern's equal about 18,700 against 19,400.

How we built the list

1. Who counts. For revenue: the six Class I freight railroad companies that run in the US and Amtrak, each filing an annual report. Global state-owned railways aren't included.
2. What's counted. Total operating revenue as reported, for the whole company, including Canadian and Mexican operations for CN and CPKC.
3. The FRA ranking. Employee hours and train miles from each railroad's 2025 monthly reports, summed by the parent or holding company the FRA records. Commuter railroads are listed under the agency or operator that files the report.
4. Checking. Every revenue figure was matched to the filing. Many top results rank railroads by market value, which leaves out BNSF (owned by Berkshire Hathaway) and Amtrak, or give revenue without a year. The Association of American Railroads publishes industry statistics of its own.

What the list is good for if you sell B2B

Know who buys what. General guidance, not drawn from the filings. Class I railroads buy through central procurement for locomotives, railcars, rail, ties, fuel and technology, with engineering, mechanical and network operations departments owning the requirements. Short lines buy more locally, but holding companies like Genesee & Wyoming and Watco often standardize vendors across dozens of railroads. Commuter railroads are public agencies that buy through public bids.

Use train miles and hours to size accounts. Train miles drive wear on track and equipment; employee hours drive demand for safety, training, scheduling and crew tools. BNSF's 156.5 million train miles make it the largest account for anything priced by usage.

Watch the merger. If the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern combination goes ahead, vendor consolidation usually follows. Incumbent suppliers to either railroad should expect a review.

Worked example

Illustrative example. Crewline (crewline.example) sells crew scheduling software priced at an illustrative $1.50 per employee hour worked per year. Its seller compares two segments from the FRA data:

• The two largest short-line holding companies: Genesee & Wyoming (5.8 million hours) and Watco (3.2 million) total 9.0 million hours, or 9.0 million x $1.50 = $13.5 million a year if both standardize.
• Commuter railroads in the table: about 61 million hours across LIRR, Metro-North, NJ Transit, Metra, MBTA, SEPTA and PATH, but each buys through its own public procurement.

The seller starts with the holding companies, where one decision covers 142 railroads, and targets each company's head of transportation and its procurement lead. Mapping which railroads report to which holding company, and who runs operations at each, is the slow part; Bebop researches each account in a list like this.

Next step: for the trucking side of freight, see our list of the largest trucking companies.