What is the biggest railroad


wheeler1963 said:
Only one that can claim coast to coast is AMTRAK.
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Amtrak does not operate its own tracks coast to coast. But by your logic you can actually also add VIA Rail to the list, as it operates all the way from Halifax to Vancouver, mostly over Canadian National's network, which is truely coast to coast.

Canadian Pacific no longer goes east of Montreal in Canada, but if it makes it down to New York city as indicated on the track map, then it can be definately be considered coast to coast.

No US railroads operate from Atlantic to Pacific, although there might be a connection in the south from Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, and there might be a Mexican RR that does the same.
 
Why is it no US railroad has track in Canada yet the CN and CP both own track in the US?:confused:
Atleast thats what the 2 maps look like to me.
 
efram said:
CPR makes it to NYC (or very close) using former D&H trackage.
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last I knew they were still running on trackage rights to NYC, they also had trackage rights to philly. And technically they do reach tidewater in Albany NY just not the ocean
 
I'd be willing to bet that if Buffet were to shed everything other than the Transcon and the Powder River Basin that CN would happily scoop them up. CP seems to be happy with what they have and CN like to munch up railroads.

Unless of course we had something like the Washington Rail Link spring up (in reference to MRL of course.)
 
I think the CN is the most likely buyer for some of the lines the BNSF will be dumping. They fit well into the CN system. The KCS has also been actively involved in talks with the BNSF about some lines since news of the Buffet takeover.
 
NYC (later PC and Conrail) used to have track through Ontario. That was abandoned years ago.

NS used to have trackage rights over CN, but none of their own track. These trackage rights were cancelled ~5 years ago when NS lost the Ford contract although they still operate cross-border transfers into Fort Erie and Windsor. (The Fort Erie job may have been recently terminated, with CN delivering cars to Buffalo instead.)

CSX still owns an isolated operation around Sarnia, ON, which used to be part of a larger system of C&O trackage in Ontario, but most of that has also been abandoned.

CSX also operates up into Montreal from New York state.

BNSF operates into Vancouver from Washington state.

BNSF also has an isolated operation in or near Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo railway, before being fully absorbed into Canadian Pacific in the mid 1980s, was jointly owned by CP and NYC. So was the old Canada Southern Railway, which later in life was that NYC/PC/CR Ontario route mentioned at the very beginning of this post.
 
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neither up or BNSF run coast to coast. but in terms of the biggest railroad in north america it is the union pacific system
 
The 2011 gross revenues show BNSF at about $19.5 billion and UP at about $18.5 billion. Both are huge and very healthy.
 
Oh, and for those that really care, earnings per share is only inportant in the comparison of two companies when the share price is identical. Otherwise it is irrelevant. What you want are Price to earnings rations, Return on Assets, and Return on tota Gross Income. Buffet saw pieces of BNSF he liked, but not necessarily the whole.
 
The CNR runs from coast to coast to coast, so trackwise it may be the largest system?
 
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