Railroad classes

Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992.

Initially (in 1911) the former federal agency Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) classified railroads by their annual gross revenue.

In early 1991, two Class II railroads, Montana Rail Link and Wisconsin Central, asked the ICC to increase the minimum annual operating revenue criteria (then established at US$93.5 million) to avoid being redesignated as Class I, which would have resulted in increased administrative and legal costs.

The thresholds set in 1992 were: Since dissolution of the ICC in 1996, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) has become responsible for defining criteria for each railroad class.

The thresholds, last adjusted for inflation in 2023, are:[4] In Canada, a Class I rail carrier is defined (as of 2004[update]) as a company that has earned gross revenues exceeding $250 million (CAD) for each of the previous two years.

BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad have a duopoly over all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western United States, while CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway operate most of the trackage in the Eastern United States, with the Mississippi River being the rough dividing line.

Canadian National Railway (via its subsidiary Grand Trunk Corporation) operates north–south lines near the Mississippi River.