Education - Part 5B2
Unpowered Railroad Cars - Revenue Source
Source of Revenue
Passenger and freight cars (also known as carriages and wagons in many parts of the world) constitute the principal source of revenue for railroads. Today, in the United States, most railroad revenue is derived from freight transport. This can be seen in the following graphic, which displays freight revenue for North American Class I carriers (see Classification of Railroads in What is a Railroad?). See also Why U. S. Freight Rail is Profitable (video 15:11 Minutes).
Source of Revenue
Passenger and freight cars (also known as carriages and wagons in many parts of the world) constitute the principal source of revenue for railroads. Today, in the United States, most railroad revenue is derived from freight transport. This can be seen in the following graphic, which displays freight revenue for North American Class I carriers (see Classification of Railroads in What is a Railroad?). See also Why U. S. Freight Rail is Profitable (video 15:11 Minutes).
Operating revenue of the seven Class I North American railroads in 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars)
However, in other parts of the world, most notably Europe, Japan and China, significant revenue is derived from passenger transport. These are the areas in which truly fast trains operate. The graphic below shows passenger revenue (in Euros per train-kilometer) in 2019 for 14 European countries. An Euro (€) per train-kilometer is the revenue derived as a passenger train travels 1 km (0.621 mi). For France, assuming a trip of 500 km (311 mi), revenue amounted to €19,070 ($20,024). Total passenger train-kilometers for France in 2019 was 112,614,000, thus total revenue was €4,295,097,960 ($4,510,000,000).
Passenger revenue in Euros per train-kilometer for 14 European countries
Contrast this with the passenger revenue for Amtrak for 2019 of $3,503,520,000. The population of France is about 20% that of the United States.