The U.S. freight railroads are private organizations that are responsible for their own maintenance and improvement projects. Compared with other major industries, they invest one of the highest percentages of revenues to maintain and add capacity to their system. The majority of this investment is for upkeep to ensure a state of good repair while 15 to 20 percent of capital expenditures, on average, are used to enhance capacity. [4]
The documents Freight Railroad Background and Impact of the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 offer more information about the current state of the U.S. freight rail industry. In addition, FRA's Railroad Geographic Information SystemExternal Link provides an interactive tool that allows users to view various aspects of freight rail infrastructure in the U.S. Public datasets are available in the National Transportation Atlas DatabaseExternal Link.