Today's Railroads in Michigan...
Railroads in Michigan are almost 200 years old, beginning in 1836 and reaching their peak in trackage about 1916. Since that time, each year has seen abandonments and reduced passenger and freight traffic, all coinciding with the deindustialization of Michigan's major cities and a move of passenger to airlines and automobiles. A majority of Michigan railroad lines have disappeared in the last 100 years.
Today, the railroad operations which are left generally fit into one of these six categories:
- Overhead freight/intermodal traffic from Sarnia to the Chicago area via the Port Huron tunnel and Battle Creek on the CN
- Overhead freight/intermodal traffic from Windsor through the tunnel and on NS trackage rights towards Chicago by the CP
- Automobile and auto parts traffic from the Detroit area to points southeast, south and west on the NS, CSX and CN
- Iron ore taconite transport from the Marquette iron range to docks and all-rail shipments to a few steel mills
- Unit trains of coal, grain and sugar beets to power plants, agri-businesses and sugar processing plants near Bay City
- Amtrak passenger trains to and from Chicago, Detroit, Port Huron and Grand Rapids
- The remainding branch lines throughout the state carry only 1-2 freight trains per day each way mostly on shortline railroads
This website is divided into two sections. Today's Railroads features current railroad operation including links to Michigan's operating railroads. The RRHX Railroad History section features almost 200 years of past railroads, from the establishment of the Erie & Kalamazoo railroad in 1836 to today.
Image info: Canadian National track maintenance crews weld a rail repair at Tappan, near Port Huron. [Dan Meinhard]
Newsfeed from Google: Railroads
News Feed - Railroads
17 May 2025
- Nation’s third-largest commuter railroad goes on strike for the first time in four decades - Politico
- New Jersey on the brink of its biggest railroad strike in more than 40 years - Gothamist
- Some Class I railroads take fresh look at mergers - FreightWaves
- New Jersey Transit Teamsters Protest Outside Railroad’s HQ Ahead of Potential Strike - International Brotherhood of Teamsters
- BNSF, UP prepping for July cargo rebound after tariff-induced lull - Journal of Commerce
- Local highways to briefly close for railroad replacement and paving work - East Idaho News
- Rail News - U.S. freight rail traffic rises 5.7% in Week 19. For Railroad Career Professionals - Progressive Railroading
- Railroads expecting Chinese import traffic to bounce back - trains.com
- New Jersey Transit Railroad Engineers Go Out on Strike - Bloomberg
- Buffalo man sentenced for fiery railroad incident - WGRZ
- New Jersey Transit Teamsters Launch First Strike at the Railroad in 42 Years - International Brotherhood of Teamsters
- Area highways to briefly close for railroad replacement and paving work - Idaho Transportation Department (.gov)
- Monopoly in the Making: Union Pacific’s Merger Ambitions Could Shake UP the Rail Industry - SMART Union
- Utah's Japanese railroad workers spotlighted through work, research of local scholars - KMYU
- Utah's Japanese railroad workers spotlighted through work, research of local scholars - KUTV
