Class I railroad

A Class I railroad (also called a Class 1 railroad) is a member of the largest class of railroads in North America. Freight railroads in the United States are classified by the Association of American Railroads as Class I, Class II and Class III in terms of size. The classification has always been by means of annual operating revenue; the exact revenues required to be in each class have varied through the years since they have adjusted for inflation.

History

The classification of railroads as Class I, II, or III was started by the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 1930s. Initially Class I railroads were defined as railroads with operating revenue of at least $1 million. There were 132 Class I railroads in 1939.

The $1 million figure was used until 1956; however, since that time, it has increased faster than inflation. In 1956 it was increased to $3 million. By 1963 the number of Class I railroads had dropped to 102. By 1965 the cut-off had increased to $5 million and had increased to $50 million by 1978, at which point only 41 railroads were defined as Class I railroads.

As of 2004, a Class I railroad has an operating revenue exceeding $277.7 million. The exact setting of the cut-off figure has always been as much a political decision as anything else; there have always been rumors of the powerful Class I companies voting to increase the cut-off to deny an upstart membership of their exclusive "club".

In Canada, a Class I rail carrier is defined (as of 2004) as a company that has earned gross revenues exceeding $250 million for each of the previous two years from providing rail services.

The current Class I United States railroads are:

• Amtrak (AMTK) – technically not a Class I, since it isn't a freight railroad, but it fits the rest of the definition
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF)
• CSX Transportation (CSX)
• Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW) – part of the Canadian National Railway
• Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS)
• Norfolk Southern Railway (NS)
• Soo Line Railroad (SOO) – part of the Canadian Pacific Railway
• Union Pacific Railroad (UP)

Three Canadian railways meet the Canadian definition of a Class I carrier:

• Canadian National Railway (CN)
• Canadian Pacific Railway (CP)
• VIA Rail (VIA) – publicly-owned passenger railway

Two Mexican railroads would fit the definition if they were U.S. companies:

• Ferrocarril Mexicano (FXE)
• Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM)

Consolidations

Over the years, many Class I railroads have merged to stave off bankruptcy or simply to increase profits. The following is a list of consolidations that have merged at least one Class I railroad into a larger one:

• July 1, 1967: Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railroad into Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
• 1982: Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Seaboard Coast Line Railroad into Seaboard System Railroad

  This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Table of Class I railroads by year

See also

References

• AAR – Class I Railroad Statistics
• The Family Tree of North American Railroads
• Uniform Classification of Accounts and Related Railway Records (UCA). Retrieved April 24, 2005.

Stover, John F. (1999). The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads. Routledge, New York, New York. ISBN 0–415–92140–6.