Rail Connections

All major ports are either directly connected to the rail system or have nearby rail facilities. Bulk terminals have a variety of rail service connections suited to the type and volume of commodities they handle. Most container terminals have either on-dock transfer facilities within the terminal boundaries or off-dock facilities nearby. The table below lists the total number of active terminals, including those with on-dock rail access at the top 25 container ports.[1]

The online Port Profiles provides rail connections at each individual port.

[1] Cranes include those at active marine terminal, based upon U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics analysis, using AIS data from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Nationwide Automatic Identification System (NAIS) archive, processed by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory's AIS Analysis Package (AISAP) software package. The top 25 ports for each category (tonnage, container, and dry bulk) are based upon the preliminary 2020 port rankings published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer, Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center.