Chicago tonnage by railroad: 1971 and 2000

A graphic illustration of Chicago's rail traffic density changes over the past 30 years.

Published: April 12, 2010

Traffic density changes in the past 30 years on freight railroads' main lines to Chicago reflect factors both geographic and corporate.

Geographic factors include the shift of manufacturing from domestic to offshore; air quality regulations that closed high-sulfur Western mines; and general population and economic growth. Corporate factors include the desire of railroad managements to concentrate tonnage onto as few lines as possible, and mergers that made previously competing lines redundant. Many lines with thin to modest traffic in 1971 changed to few lines with very heavy traffic in 2000.

Railroads included in this map:
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Baltimore & Ohio; BNSF Railway; Burlington Northern; Canadian National; Canadian Pacific; Chesapeake & Ohio; Chicago & North Western; Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; CSX Transportation; Erie Lackawanna; Grand Trunk Western; Illinois Central; Iowa Interstate; Louisville & Nashville; Missouri Pacific; Norfolk & Western; Norfolk Southern; Penn Central; Soo Line; Union Pacific; Wisconsin Central

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