When I look at who actually moves the most freight by rail, the contest is over before it begins. China State Railway Group carried about 3.99 billion tonnes of cargo in 2024, its eighth straight year of growth, with a freight turnover near CEIC 3.59 trillion tonne-kilometres Government of China. No other operator on the planet comes close on either figure. This guide ranks the ten largest rail freight operators in the world for 2026, and I have built it the way my team reads these numbers when we price a rail or intermodal move: by how much freight a company actually hauls, not by how far its map stretches.
A quick warning before the table. Railways do not measure themselves the same way, so the order shifts with the metric you pick. Some report annual tonnes loaded, others report tonne-kilometres, which weight distance as well as weight. North American railroads publish revenue ton-miles in short tons, and those do not convert one-to-one into metric tonne-kilometres. Treat the ranking below as indicative rather than a single audited league table.
The largest rail freight operators in the world, ranked for 2026
| Rank | Operator | Country or region | Freight metric (2024 unless noted) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China State Railway Group | China | ~3.99 bn tonnes; ~3.59 trillion tonne-km Government of China |
| 2 | Russian Railways (RZD) | Russia | ~1.116 bn tonnes in 2025 (down 5.6%); ~2.48 trillion tariff tonne-km International Railway Journal |
| 3 | Indian Railways | India | ~1.62 bn tonnes, FY2024-25 Government of India |
| 4 | BNSF Railway | United States | $23.35 bn freight revenue; volume up 6.5% Berkshire Hathaway |
| 5 | Union Pacific | United States | $24.3 bn operating revenue Union Pacific |
| 6 | Canadian National (CN) | Canada | 235,538 mn revenue ton-miles Canadian National |
| 7 | CPKC (Canadian Pacific Kansas City) | Canada, US, Mexico | 211,458 mn revenue ton-miles CPKC |
| 8 | CSX | United States | $14.54 bn revenue CSX |
| 9 | Norfolk Southern | United States | $12.1 bn revenue Norfolk Southern |
| 10 | DB Cargo | Germany (Europe) | ~165 mn tonnes; ~58.5 bn tonne-km (2025) RailFreight.com |
The figures in that table come from the sources named in the profiles below. Where I could pin down a company's own reported tonnes or tonne-kilometres I used them. Where the cleanest public number is revenue, I say so and treat it as a proxy for scale.
How I rank the largest rail freight operators
Three lenses matter, and each one crowns a slightly different winner. The first is annual tonnes loaded, which is the rawest measure of how much stuff crosses the network. By that count China leads, India sits second, and Russia comes third. The second lens is tonne-kilometres, which multiplies weight by distance and rewards operators that move heavy cargo across long hauls. Switch to that measure and Russia jumps ahead of India, because Russian trains carry coal and ore thousands of kilometres while a lot of Indian tonnage moves shorter distances. The third lens is network reach and revenue, which is how the North American carriers are usually compared, since they report revenue ton-miles rather than metric tonnes.
That is why I keep saying the order is indicative. A shipper who cares about sheer volume at origin reads the tonnes column. A shipper pricing a long cross-continental haul reads tonne-kilometres. I read both, then I look at the network map, because the operator on the rail decides transit reliability and where my cargo has to change trains. For the longest single lines rather than the biggest haulers, our separate guide to the longest railway lines in the world covers a different question entirely.
The three global heavyweights
China State Railway Group is the clear number one. It moved roughly 3.99 billion tonnes of freight in 2024 Government of China, and its freight turnover reached about 3.59 trillion tonne-kilometres CEIC across a network that passed 162,000 kilometres of route by the end of that year Metro Rail Today. The state operator runs both the passenger and freight system, so it carries everything from Shanxi coal to the containers riding the China to Europe corridors. When one company hauls close to four billion tonnes a year, the rest of the ranking is competing for second place.
Russian Railways sits second, and it is the operator that best shows why the metric you choose changes the answer. RZD loaded about 1.18 billion tonnes in 2024, a 4.1% fall that marked its weakest year in more than a decade International Railway Journal. Yet its freight turnover still came to roughly 2.52 trillion tariff tonne-kilometres International Railway Journal, far above India, because Russian freight travels enormous distances on a network of about 85,500 kilometres Russian Railways. Long hauls of bulk commodities are what keep RZD ahead on the distance-weighted measure even in a down year.
Indian Railways ranks third, and by pure tonnes it is huge. It carried about 1,617 million tonnes of freight in the 2024-25 financial year Government of India, the second-largest tonnage of any operator, over a route network of roughly 68,000 kilometres that ranks fourth-largest in the world Indian Railways. Its two dedicated freight corridors, the Eastern and Western DFCs, were built to pull that heavy tonnage off the passenger lines and speed it up. India trails Russia on tonne-kilometres because a larger share of its freight, coal and cement especially, moves over shorter domestic distances.
North America's Class I giants
The United States and Canada run a small club of very large private freight railroads, and this is where revenue and revenue ton-miles replace metric tonnes as the common yardstick. BNSF Railway is the biggest of them by freight volume. It posted freight revenue of about $23.35 billion in 2024, with overall volume up 6.5% on the year as intermodal grew and coal shrank Berkshire Hathaway. BNSF spans 28 states plus links into western Canada BNSF, and it hauls more freight tonnage and ton-miles than any other North American railroad, which is why I place it ahead of its neighbour despite a slightly smaller revenue line.
Union Pacific edges BNSF on revenue while trailing it on volume. UP reported operating revenue of $24.3 billion in 2024, up 1%, with revenue carloads rising 3% across a network reaching 23 states Union Pacific. It earns more per ton-mile than BNSF because of its cargo mix, so the two western giants swap the top spot depending on whether you rank by dollars or by tonnes. Between them they carry the bulk of freight west of the Mississippi.
Canadian National comes next. CN generated 235,538 million revenue ton-miles in 2024, up 1%, on revenue of about C$17.0 billion despite a year of labour disruption Canadian National. It is the only railroad reaching three coasts in North America, touching the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. That geography gives a forwarder routing options that a regional carrier cannot match.
CPKC, the railroad formed when Canadian Pacific bought Kansas City Southern, ranks seventh and is the most interesting story on this list. It recorded 211,458 million revenue ton-miles in 2024 and moved about 4.37 million carloads, both up sharply as the merger bedded in CPKC. Its distinction is reach rather than raw size: CPKC is the only railway linking Canada, the United States and Mexico on a single network, which is reshaping north-south freight flows since the 2023 combination.
The two eastern US carriers round out the North American block. CSX turned over $14.54 billion in revenue in 2024, down about 1% on softer volumes, across a network covering the eastern United States CSX. Norfolk Southern reported $12.1 billion in revenue the same year with an operating ratio of 66.4%, working 22 eastern states Norfolk Southern. Both move less tonnage than the western pair, but they control the gateways into the Atlantic and Gulf ports, so they matter far more than their ranking suggests to any importer landing boxes on the East Coast.
Europe's biggest rail freight hauler
DB Cargo takes the tenth spot as the largest rail freight operator in Europe, and its numbers show how much smaller the fragmented European market is than the giants above. The Deutsche Bahn subsidiary carried about 180 million tonnes of freight in 2024, roughly 9% less than the year before, for a volume sold near 68 billion tonne-kilometres RailFreight.com. A weak economy hit demand from automotive and steel customers, and DB Cargo posted a heavy operating loss that has forced a deep restructuring. It still moves more rail freight than any other single European operator, which tells you how divided that continent's rail market remains compared with the state-scale networks of Asia.
What this ranking means for shippers
This is not trivia for me. Knowing who runs the rail changes how a booking behaves, and here is how my team actually uses a list like this.
- We read the tonnes column when a client needs raw origin capacity, and the tonne-kilometre column when the haul is long, because the two answers can name different leaders.
- We treat the western US pair as interchangeable on quality but different on strength, since BNSF leads on volume while Union Pacific leads on revenue and pricing power.
- We flag CPKC on any Mexico to Canada lane, because a single-network move across three countries usually beats an interchange between two carriers on both time and paperwork.
- We watch RZD and the Russian network for how sanctions and rerouted trade keep shifting Eurasian rail volumes year to year.
- We pair a rail quote with the port at each end, the same corridor logic we apply when we map cargo onto the busiest container ports in the world.
None of this replaces a routed plan for a specific shipment. Rail is almost never the whole journey anyway, since most freight starts or ends on a truck. If you are weighing rail against ocean on a long corridor, or you need a door-to-door move that finishes on the road, you can compare options and book freight transport through GetTransport.com, where the rail leg is priced as one part of the wider move rather than in isolation.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the largest rail freight operator in the world in 2026?
China State Railway Group is the largest by a wide margin. It moved about 3.99 billion tonnes of cargo in 2024 Government of China, with a freight turnover near 3.59 trillion tonne-kilometres CEIC. No other operator is within reach on either measure, so China holds the top spot no matter which metric you use. Through August 2025 it had already moved about 2.68 billion tonnes, on pace for another record year. Government of China
Is Indian Railways bigger than Russian Railways?
It depends on the metric. By tonnes loaded, India is bigger, at about 1,617 million tonnes in FY2024-25 Government of India against roughly 1.116 billion tonnes for Russia in 2025 International Railway Journal. By tonne-kilometres, which weight distance, Russia is clearly ahead at about 2.48 trillion International Railway Journal, because its freight travels much farther per load. That split is exactly why I call this ranking indicative.
Which is the largest freight railroad in North America?
BNSF Railway hauls the most freight by volume and ton-miles, while Union Pacific reports slightly higher revenue at $24.3 billion in 2024 Union Pacific versus BNSF's $23.35 billion Berkshire Hathaway. So the answer flips depending on whether you count tonnes or dollars. The two western carriers together dominate US rail freight.
Who is the biggest rail freight operator in Europe?
DB Cargo, the freight arm of Germany's Deutsche Bahn, is Europe's largest single operator. It carried about 165 million tonnes in 2025 for roughly 58.5 billion tonne-kilometres RailFreight.com, down again from 2024 as the business restructures after heavy losses. Europe's rail freight market is far more fragmented than the state-scale networks of China, Russia and India.