1

ERTAC Rail Emissions Inventory 

Part 3: Class II and III Locomotives 

Michelle Bergin, GA Environmental Protection Division 

Matthew Harrell, IL Environmental Protection Agency 

Mark Janssen, Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium 

Acknowledgments: 

 Steve Sullivan, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association 

 David Powell, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. 

 Dennis McGeen, Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality 

 Lisa Higgins, Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection 

 Laurel Driver, US EPA, Office of Air Quality Planning and Support 

 Byeong Kim, GA Environmental Protection Division 

Introduction 

Air protection agencies from twenty-seven states, coordinated through the Eastern Regional Technical 

Advisory Committee (ERTAC) and headed by the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO), 

identified a need to better quantify and characterize rail-related emissions inventories. Traditional

locomotives utilize large diesel engines, resulting in emissions of NOx, diesel PM, hydrocarbons, 

greenhouse gases, and other air pollutants. These emissions are sometimes concentrated in areas 

exceeding National Ambient Air Quality Standards. No cohesive nationwide railroad emission 

estimates based on local operations are known to have been made previously. Inventory development 

methods for locomotive emissions estimates vary from state to state and, in general, lack the spatial or 

temporal resolution needed to support air quality modeling and planning 1-5. 

The ERTAC Rail Subcommittee (ERTAC Rail) was established with active representatives from twelve 

member states, three regional planning offices, and the US EPA. The subcommittee’s goals are to (1) 

standardize agencies’ inventory development methods through a collaborative effort, (2) improve the 

quality of data received and the resulting emission inventories, and (3) reduce the administrative burden 

on railroad companies of providing data. 

With support from the Rail industry and assistance from the ERTAC Rail Data Workgroup (Appendix 

A), ERTAC Rail has developed 3 inventories of locomotive emissions (Table 1) for Class I line-haul, 

Shortline (Class III) and Regional (Class II) Railroads, and Class I railyard switchers. Because of the 

difficulty in obtaining data and differences in states’ needs for inventory years, sources from both 2007 

and 2008 were utilized (Appendix B.) 

Line-haul locomotives travel long distances (e.g. between cities) while switcher locomotives largely 

operate in railyards, splitting and joining rail cars with varying destinations. Shortline railroads often 

transport freight between Class I railroads, ports, or other freight carriers and individual industries, 

provide local switching in a railyard, and/or own and operate a terminal facility (act as “Switcher and 

Terminal” providers). Passenger and Commuter Rail, industrial locomotives, and associated nonlocomotive equipment are not included in these inventories. More information on ERTAC Rail, Railroad 

participation, the Rail industry, and effects of rail on air quality are available elsewhere6

. 
2

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) defines Class I Railroads as having had minimum carrier 

operating revenues of $401.4 million (USD) in 2008, Regional Railroads (Class II) as having had at least 

350 route miles of track and/or revenue between $40 million and the Class I threshold, and Shortline 

Railroads (Class III) as having less than 350 route miles of track, less than $40 million in revenue7, and 

include all ‘Switching and Terminal’ companies. There are 8 Class I Railroads operating in the United

States, about 33 Regional Railroads (Class II), and approximately 540 Shortline Railroads (Class III) 

(Appendix C). While categorized as a Class I Railroad, Amtrak was excluded from these inventories 

because of significant differences in equipment and operational characteristics. 

Table 1. Summary of ERTAC Rail Inventories: U.S. Locomotive Emissions and Fuel Use for 

either 2007 or 2008*. 

 Fuel Use** 

(gal/yr) 

Emissions (tons/yr) 

NOx PM2.5 HC SO2 CO NH3 CO2

Class I*** 

line-haul 3,770,914,002 754,443 23,439 37,941 7,836 110,969 347 42,305k

Class I 

switcher 301,046,290 74,431 2,042 4,867 624 9,230 28 3,367k

Class II 

and III 157,800,000 47,035 1,065 1,737 327 4,631 14 1,765k

*See Appendix B for a description of the year and source of data utilized for each inventory. 

**Locomotive grade diesel 

***Excluding Amtrak and including work train fuel use 

This paper documents the data sources and methodologies used for calculating the Class II and III 

emissions inventory. Class II and III activities account for an estimated 4% of the total locomotive fuel 

use in the combined ERTAC inventories and for approximately 32% of the industry’s national freight 

rail mileage8

. These railroads are widely dispersed, though more concentrated in the eastern United 

States (Figure 1), and often utilize older, higher emitting locomotives than their Class I counterparts. 

These railroads provide services to industries requiring consistent transportation of large amounts or

very heavy freight, small towns, and/or provide switching and terminal services at complex rail and 

intermodal intersections (Figure 2). 
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Figure 1. Class II and III railroad links from FRA dataset extracted by ERTAC Rail 9 and Appendix D 

Figure 2. Carloads shipped by Shortline and Regional Railroads by commodity group7 

Method 

There are approximately 570 Class II and III Railroads operating in the United States, around 450 of 

which are members of the American Shortline and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA)7. In 

general, while information on Class II/III link locations and many fleet characteristics are available

online, a significant effort would be required to compile this data into a usable format and check the data 

for reliability. In addition, the Class II and III sectors of the railroad industry have been in considerable 

flux since partial deregulation from the 1980 Staggers Act. States with relatively large numbers of Class 

II and III railroads, such as Maine, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, have independent

surveys and emission inventory estimates available, but no regional or national level cohesive electronic 

datasets have been previously developed. 
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To calculate a nationwide Class II/III emissions inventory, ERTAC Rail first surveyed existing data 

sources, compared states’ methods and data used for existing inventories, and contacted members of the

Class II and III Railroad communities for guidance, including the ASLRRA, the FRA, and Genesee & 

Wyoming, RailAmerica, and Omnitrax (large holding companies of Class II and III railroads). In 

particular, Mr. Steve Sullivan from ASLRRA and Mr. David Powell from Genesee & Wyoming were 

able to provide significant assistance in identification of an appropriate nationwide dataset of Class II 

and III railroads with links and total locomotive fuel use, the development of a calculation method, and 

guidance on appropriate assumptions such as fleet average locomotive Tier classification. Data sources, 

calculations, and assumptions used to develop the resulting inventory are described below. 

1. Locate Class II and III Railroads. 

Identification and correct placement of Class II and III railroads was an important first step, requiring a 

comprehensive electronic dataset. A GIS database was obtained from the Federal Railroad 

Administration (FRA) with links identified as owned or operated by specific Shortline or Regional 

Railroads using “Reporting Marks”, which are brief identification abbreviations. The full list of 

Reporting Marks is included with the inventory. The locations of these links with associated data 

including reporting mark, railroad name, class, number of links and route miles owned and/or operated,

and total route miles of links were extracted by ERTAC Rail (Matt Harrell, Appendix D.) While this 

dataset contains confidential data for the Class I railroads, the geographical allocation of Class II and III 

links (Figure 1) and related information is public9. A similar public database compiled by the Bureau of 

Transportation Statistics is also available10. Data from this source will not match the confidential data 

exactly but will be very similar. 

2. Select/Calculate Emission Factors. 

While some Class II and III railroads purchase more recent locomotives, locomotives often serve 30 to 

40 years in Class I line-haul service before being transferred to switching service or sold to Class II or 

III railroads. Through guidance from the Class II/III Railroad community, it was agreed that the EPA 

Non-regulated (pre-1973) emission factors11 best represent most operating Class II and III locomotives. 

In addition, although the fuel use and route miles data obtained represent both switching and line-haul 

activities by the Class II and III railroads, the US EPA line-haul duty cycle was selected as most 

representative along with the “Small Line-Haul” conversion factor11 to obtain gm/gal emission factors 

for hydrocarbons (HC), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particulate matter (PM),and carbon monoxide (CO) 

(Table 2). 

Table 2. Emission factors over the standard operating line-haul duty cycle using a conversion 

factor of 18.2 bhp-hr/gal 11. 

Line-Haul (gm/gal) 

HC NOx PM CO 

Non-regulated (pre 1973)* 8.736 236.6 5.824 23.296 

Other emission factors are not engine specific. For locomotives, PM2.5 is assumed to be 97% of PM10

11

, 

and emission factors applied for SO2 and NH3 are 1.88 g/gal 11 and 83.3 mg/gal 12 respectively. VOC 

emissions are be calculated as 1.053 times the HC emissions for locomotives 13. Note that non-road 

engine and fuel specific information is sparse for these conversions. Greenhouse gases are estimated 

using emission factors shown in Table 3.
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Table 3. EPA greenhouse gas emission factors for locomotive diesel fuel (grams/gal). 14

CO2 N2O CH4

Locomotive diesel 1.015E4 0.26 0.80 

3. Calculate Emissions. 

The ASLRRA compiles data from the Class II and III railroads every few years7, including total industry 

fuel use for locomotives and total Class II/III Route Miles. The FRA dataset also provides route miles. 

These values can be used to calculate an average Fuel Use Factor (FUF) for the industry (Eqn 1). 

 

mile

gal

miles

gal

TotalClassII IIIRouteMiles

TotalIndustryFuelUse FuelUseFactor

FRA

ASLRRA 2814 64.

367,52

157 800, 000,

/

= = = Equation 1 

Some data was available from the ASLRRA to distinguish between the Shortline and Regional Railroad 

fuel use and miles of track, however the resulting fuel efficiency factors were not intuitively correct so 

ERTAC Rail chose to keep their emissions inventories combined until the discrepancies can be 

improved or explained. 

ERTAC Rail chose to use the Total Class II/III Route Miles values with non-zero activity from the FRA 

dataset for this calculation, 52,367 miles, as shown. This way, if a railroad is known to have ceased

operations, those route miles are not counted while the total fuel used estimate remains the same. In

addition, this dataset was available in GIS format for mapping purposes, the data is also used for the

Class I line-haul and switcher inventories, and it is part of a more comprehensive, managed inventory.

For comparison, ERTAC Rail has actual fuel use data and route miles for approximately 50 shortline 

railroads, which result in an overall average FUF of 2560.10 gal/mile, very close to the nationally 

calculated FUF. The average of the independently calculated FUFs in the inventory is 3001.09 gal/mile, 

with the maximum being 15953.78, the minimum being 67.97, and a standard deviation of 3393.08 

gal/mile. As can be seen, while the averages are in good agreement, there is a wide range of potential 

individual FUFs per railroad which can depend on many factors such as frequency of trips, tonnage 

hauled, terrain, distance, locomotives used, and others. This wide potential range indicates the 

importance of using specific fuel use data when possible. There are also discrepancies between the FRA 

route miles assigned to railroads and route miles reported by the railroads. Because of the GIS linkages 

available with the FRA database, the FRA route miles rather than reported route miles are used in the 

inventory. These should also be verified when possible and, if necessary, corrected both in the FRA 

database and the emissions inventory. 

The Fuel Use Factor calculated for use in this inventory (2814.64 gal/mile) was multiplied with the route 

miles listed for each Class II and III railroad in the FRA database, resulting an estimate of gallons of fuel 

used in 2008 for each railroad. The annual gallons of fuel used were then multiplied with pollutant 

emission factors for a mass of pollutant emitted for the year. 
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Further modifications were made to the estimates to reflect actual fuel use collected for specific class 

II/III railroads, including entries of ‘0’ for railroads known to be out of operation. In particular, specific 

fuel use data was entered for railroads owned by Genesee & Wyoming and for some Class III railroads 

operating in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. These modifications were accounted for 

in the Fuel Use Factor calculation applied to the remaining railroads so that the national total fuel use is 

equal to the total estimate by the ASLRRA (157,800,800 gal) and the Fuel Use Factor is calculated only

using fuel and track data for railroads with no known fuel use information. 

Limitations, Conclusions, and Future Work 

This ERTAC Rail Class II/III inventory provides a cohesive nationwide inventory with data for where 

Shortline and Regional Railroads operate and who owns them, and provides a comprehensive 

geographical allocation of their locomotive emissions bounded by what is reported as nationwide Class 

II/III fuel usage by the ASLRRA. This inventory will be useful for regional and some local modeling, 

helps identify where railroads may need to be better characterized, and provides a strong foundation for 

future development of a more accurate nationwide Shortline and Regional railroad emissions inventory. 

Major areas for future improvement include distinguishing between switching and hauling operations 

and updating fleet Tier characteristics where appropriate. More accurate annual fuel use estimates, 

rather than using the estimated Fuel Use Factor would greatly improve the inventory. For example, 

2006 Class II/III fuel use reported to the ASLRRA was 309 million gallons, almost double what was 

reported only two years later in 2008. It is unlikely that the industry halved fuel use in two years, but no 

other activity indicators have been found for comparison. Another area of uncertainty that can be 

improved is estimates of temporal variability. Emissions inventory preparation guidance from the U.S.

EPA describes locomotive activity as constant throughout the year (e.g. no daily, weekly, or seasonal 

variability), though weekly or seasonal variation is highly likely for the Class II and III lines. 

States or other areas with local, direct Class II and III data including temporal activity, fleet 

characteristics, or annual fuel use should use that information in place of this inventory. This inventory 

was designed to incorporate refinements from industry or state agency representatives, and we request 

that any data collected be submitted to ERTAC Rail so that the inventory can be continuously improved. 

It must be noted that freight-related rail activity is not always routine and no annual emissions inventory 

will ever be able to capture the innate variability of the source. However, as other large emission 

sources are better characterized and reduced, and if rail activity increases as expected, it is important to 

standardize a methodology for estimating the emissions and to include our best reasonable 

representation of these sources and their potential variability in air quality analysis. In the future, online data loggers and other tracking technologies, combined with ambient studies and detailed modeling, 

will hopefully provide more insight to the emissions of locomotives and other rail-related sources. 

References 

1. Eastern Research Group (ERG) for E.H. Pechan & Associates, Inc., “Documentation for 

Aircraft, Commercial Marine Vessel, Locomotive, and Other Nonroad Components of the 

National Emissions Inventory, Volume I – Methodology”; EPA Contract No.: 68-D-02-063. 

Prepared for the US EPA Emissions, Monitoring and Analysis Division, Sept. 30, 2005. 

ftp://ftp.epa.gov/EmisInventory/2002finalnei/documentation/mobile/2002nei_mobile_nonroad_

methods.pdf. Related documents at 
7

ftp://ftp.epa.gov/EmisInventory/2002finalnei/documentation/mobile/2002nei_mobile_nonroad_tr

ain.pdf 

2. Sierra Research, Inc., “Revised Inventory Guidance For Locomotive Emissions”; Report No. 

SR2004-06-01. Prepared for Southeastern States Air Resource Managers (SESARM), June 2004. 

http://www.metro4-sesarm.org/pubs/railroad/FinalGuidance.pdf 

3. Sierra Research, Inc., “Research Project: Development of Railroad Emission Inventory 

Methodologies”; Report No. SR2004-06-02. Prepared for Southeastern States Air Resource 

Managers (SESARM), June 2004. http://www.metro4-

sesarm.org/pubs/railroad/FinalMethodologies.pdf 

4. Environ, “Draft LADCO 2005 Locomotive Emissions”. Prepared for Lake Michigan Air 

Director Consortium, Feb 2007. 

http://www.ladco.org/reports/technical_support_document/references/ladco_2005_locomotive_e

missions.021406.pdf 

5. Southern Research Institute, “NYSERDA Clean Diesel Technology: Non-Road Field 

Demonstration Program, Development of the 2002 Locomotive Survey for New York State”; 

Agreement Number 8958. Prepared for the New York State Energy Research And Development 

Authority (NYSERDA), Feb. 09, 2007. 

http://www.nyserda.org/publications/LocomotiveSurveyReportwithAppendices.pdf

6. M. Bergin; M. Harrell; J. McDill; M. Janssen; L. Driver; R. Fronczak; R. Nath,; and D. Seep. 

"ERTAC Rail: A Collaborative Effort in Building a Railroad-Related Emissions Inventory 

Between Eastern States Air Protection Agencies and Participation with the Railroad Industry," 

18th Annual International Emission Inventory Conference. Baltimore, MD. April 14 - 17, 2009. 

Paper and presentation available at: 

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/conference/ei18/session6/bergin.pdf

7. American Short Line and Regional Association (ASLRRA) 2008 Fact Book and main website. 

Available at www.alsrra.org. 

8. Freight Railroads in the United States 2008. Association of American Railroads (AAR). From: 

http://www.aar.org/~/media/AAR/InCongress_RailroadsStates/2008unitedstates.ashx . Also An 

Overview of America's Freight Railroads, Oct 2011, AAR. From: 

http://www.aar.org/~/media/aar/BackgroundPapers/Overview%20of%20US%20Freight%20RRs%20October%2019%202011.ashx . 

9. Confidential database was provided with assistance from Raquel Wright of the Federal Railroad 

Administration. Similar public data providing ranges of tonnage hauled rather than link-level 

tonnage is available from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics in the NTAD 2009 shapefile 

data (data is representative for the year 2007): 

http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_atlas_database/2009 . 

10. US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ 2008 National Transportation Atlas Database. 

11. EPA Technical Highlights: Emission Factors for Locomotives, EPA Office of Transportation 

and Air Quality, EPA-420-F-09-025, April 2009. 

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/nonroad/locomotv/420f09025.pdf 

12. Estimating Ammonia Emissions From Anthropogenic Nonagricultural Sources - Draft Final 

Report by E.H. Pechan & Assoc. April 2004. Prepared for EPA/STAPPA-ALAPCO Emission 

Inventory Improvement Program. Supported by personal communication (5/6/2010) with Craig 

Harvey, US EPA, OTAQ, and Robert Wooten, NC DENR. 

http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/eiip/techreport/volume03/eiip_areasourcesnh3.pdf
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13. “Conversion Factors for Hydrocarbon Emission Components,” EPA420-R-05-015, December 

2005. Docket Document EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0190-0411. 

http://epa.gov/otaq/models/nonrdmdl/nonrdmdl2005/420r05015.pdf , 

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/nonroad/420r08001a.pdf .

14. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-

2005, EPA 430-R-07-002, Annex 3.2, (April 2007), web site: 

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html

Key Words 

Transportation emissions, freight movement, railroad emissions, locomotive emissions, emissions 

inventory, emission factors, photochemical modeling, dispersion modeling, air quality modeling, diesel. 
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Appendices 

Appendix A: ERTAC Rail Data Workgroup

REPRESENTATIVE ORGANIZATION 

Matt Harrell IL EPA 

Michelle Bergin (Co-Chair) and Byeong Kim GA EPD 

Mark Janssen (Co-Chair) LADCO 

Julie McDill and Patrick Davis MARAMA 

Laurel Driver US EPA OAQPS 

Robert Fronczak AAR 

Steven Sullivan ASLRRA 

Rick Nath CSX 

David Seep and Lyle Staley BNSF 

Ken Roberge CPR 

Carl Akins and Peter Conlon KCS 

Erika Akkerman CN 

M. John Germer UP 

Brent Mason and Richard Russell NS 

David Powell G&WY 

Joanne Maxwell Amtrak 

Appendix B: Source and Year of Data Utilized for Each Inventory 

Data Year Source 

Class I Line-Haul

Annual Line-Haul Fuel Use 

and Gross Ton-Miles 2007 STB R-1 Reports (CP data for D&H is for 2008.) 

Line-haul fleet mix for 

emission factors 2008 Each Class I railroad 

Link-level tonnage 2007 FRA confidential database 

Class I Railyards (Switcher Locomotives) 

Annual Switcher Fuel Use 2008 R-1 Reports 

Switcher fleet mix for 

emission factors 2008 Each Class I railroad 

Link-level tonnage or 

Density Code (for activity 

estimate) 

2007 FRA confidential database 

Class II and III Locomotives 

Annual Total Fuel Use 2008 ASLRRA Annual Report (2008) 

Track length and railroad 2007 FRA confidential database 

Estimated fleet mix for 

emission factors 

Discussions with ASLRRA and 

Class II and III representatives. 
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Appendix C: Railroad Companies Operating in the United States 

Railroad 

Class I 

BNSF 

Canadian National 

Canadian Pacific*** 

CSX 

Kansas City Southern 

Norfolk Southern 

Union Pacific 

Amtrack 

*Regional (Class II) 

Mileage 

Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway 435 

Alaska Railroad 506 

Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad 699 

Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad 447 

Dakota, Missouri Valley and Western Railroad 534 

Florida East Coast Railway 386 

Great Lakes Central Railroad 396 

Indiana Rail Road 602 

Indiana and Ohio Railway 692 

Iowa Interstate Railroad 608 

Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad 869 

Kyle Railroad 554 

Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad 583 

Montana Rail Link 905 

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway 527 

Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railway 559 

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway 357 

Northern Plains Railroad 486 

Paducah and Louisville Railway 290 

Pan Am Railways 1165 

Portland and Western Railroad 587 

Providence and Worcester Railroad 568 

Red River Valley and Western Railroad 575 

San Joaquin Valley Railroad 351 

South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad 398 

Texas Northeastern Railroad 665 

Texas Pacifico Transportation 393 

Utah Railway 430 

Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway 878 

Wisconsin and Southern Railroad 837 

Shortline (Class III)

See www.aslrra.org/our_members/Railroad_Members or 

http://www.railsusa.com/links/Shortline_Railroads/
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* These railroads were classified as regional by the AAR in 2007 as reported in Wikipedia 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_railroad#cite_note-2 , accessed Oct. 7, 2011.) Railroads known to have 

been purchased by Class I railroads after 2007 have been removed from this list. 

Appendix D. ERTAC – Class 2/3 Shapefile Documentation (Matt Harrell, 13 Jul 2009) 

Introduction 

This document outlines the methods and procedures used to compile a shapefile representing the links in 

the FRA 1:100,000 railroad dataset that are owned or operated by Class II and III railroad companies. It 

is important to note that there is a considerable amount of overlap between the Class II’s and III’s and 

the Class I and passenger railroads. Class II’s and III’s can operate on Class I or passenger rail links and 

vice versa. Although the final shapefile specifically represents Class II and III links, there are many 

Class I and passenger railroads represented as well. 

Procedure 

1. Started with all proprietary FRA links where “NET = ‘M’ and “STCNTYFIPS” <> ‘ ‘ (this 

definition query selects all active mainline links located within the United States). 

2. Ran 12 queries, one for each ownership and trackage rights field, to select all links not 

associated with a Class I freight railroad or Amtrak and not containing a null value (e.g., 

"RROWNER1" <> 'AMTK' AND "RROWNER1" <> 'BNSF' AND "RROWNER1" <> 'CN' 

AND "RROWNER1" <> 'CPRS' AND "RROWNER1" <> 'CSXT' AND "RROWNER1" <> 

'KCS' AND "RROWNER1" <> 'NS' AND "RROWNER1" <> 'UP' AND "RROWNER1" <> 

' '). The first query was setup as a new selection. Each of the 11 subsequent queries were 

setup to add records to initial set of records. 26,261 links were selected and exported to a 

new shapefile. 

3. Due to the multitude of railroad codes used to represent commuter rail operations across the 

country, additional processing was required to remove any links that were not operated by a 

Class II or III freight railroad. Each commuter railroad was queried out of the new shapefile 

and the links analyzed to eliminate all links where no Class II or III operations were 

occurring. The following commuter rail operations were evaluated: NJT (New Jersey 

Transit), MNCW (Metro-North Commuter Railroad), LI (Long Island Railroad), CDOT 

(Connecticut DOT), MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), SEPA 

(Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority), MARC (Maryland Area Rail 

Commuter), VRE (Virginia Railway Express), MTRA (Northeastern Illinois Regional 

Commuter Railroad), CSS (Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District), DART 

(Dallas Area Rapid Transit), SCRA (Southern California Regional Rail Authority – including 

also SCAX, LACM, LAPT, and LATC), TCRA (South Florida Regional Transportation 

Authority), PJPB (Caltrain), and ACE (Altamont Commuter Express). Approximately 1581 

links were identified with no Class II or III operations and were deleted from the Class 2/3 

shapefile. 

4. The remaining Class II and III links were then compared to the regional maps contained in 

the July-August issue of The Official Railway Guide to assess the completeness of the Class 

2/3 shapefile. Six specific edits were made to the shapefile to correct the most glaring errors: 
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1) BMLP links deleted (Black Mesa & Lake Powell, an electric coal hauling railway in 

Arizona); 2) DSNG links deleted (Durango & Silverton steam tourist railroad in Colorado; 3) 

CIC haulage rights links on CN from Chicago to Omaha deleted; 4) DMIR links deleted 

(Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range, now owned and operated by CN in Minnesota; 5) EVWR’s 

ex-CSXT links coded from Evansville, IN to Okawville, IL (Evansville Western Railroad); 6) 

INRD ex-CP links coded from Chicago, IL to Louisville, IN (Indiana Rail Road). 

5. During the course of reviewing the FRA dataset, 555 “active” links were found to have no 

ownership or trackage rights codes. 1005 links have no codes listed in the 3 ownership 

fields. In most cases these links are very short and scattered across the country. Only the 

links representing the EVWR and INRD spanned large distances and were fixed. The other 

problem links were deemed to be insignificant. A listing of these links will be provided back 

to the FRA to assist with their coding in 1:100K railway shapefile.