North American Rail Network Lines with Ownership and Operational Data

The North American Rail Network (NARN) Rail Lines dataset, updated in 2026 from the Federal Railroad Administration, provides geographic and operational data for the continent's railway system. It includes ownership, trackage rights, and dispatcher information for lines across all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada.

Use Cases

• Map rail line ownership and trackage rights using the RROWNER1–3 fields to analyze operational control and property ownership structures.
• Analyze the distribution of passenger rail lines and STRACNET designations across the North American network for infrastructure planning.
• Identify segments where the railroad dispatcher (operational control), maintenance responsibility, and property owner are different entities to study contractual relationships.

Strengths

• Data provides geographic reference at a detailed scale of 1:24,000 or better within the United States.
• Covers a comprehensive geographic scope including all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada.
• Includes specific fields (RROWNER1–3) detailing operation, maintenance, and ownership responsibilities for each rail segment.

Limitations

• The dataset's creation date is 2016, and while updated in 2026, the underlying source data's temporal coverage is not specified.
• No information is provided on the number of rows, columns, or total size of the dataset, limiting assessment of its scale.

Provenance

Source

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD).

Collection Method

Compiled as part of the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD).

Time Range

Dataset created in 2016, updated in 2026; specific temporal coverage of the underlying rail data is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated on February 9, 2026.

Geography

North America, covering all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Mexico, and Canada.