Overview

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is the authoritative source of information on passenger and freight rail networks for the U.S. federal government. FRA provides geospatial resources to the public on rail networks, including data on grade crossings, Amtrak stations, and more. This page contains information about and links to FRA's Safety Map, Trespassers Casualty Map, and Grade Crossing Inventory.

FRA also provides rail data to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) to support the Open Data Catalog, which includes information on the North American Rail Network (NARN).

FRA Safety Map

The FRA Safety Map is an interactive map that outlines rail networks for:

• Class I Railroads
• Passenger Rail
• Commuter Rail
• Amtrak

Users can manipulate data to view maps by topography or street view, and add additional data layers including:

• Freight Stations
• Grade Crossings (updated weekly)
• Mileposts

FRA’s Grade Crossing Inventory provides visual and geographic views of grade crossings. Users can input a Crossing ID and select “Generate Map” to be taken to a custom report. Please refer to the FRA GIS Web Application User Guide for more information.

Trespassers Casualty Map

The FRA Trespassers Casualty Map is an interactive map that displays all railroad trespasser-related injuries and fatalities dating back to June 2011.

FRA aims to increase education, enforcement, and engineering efforts to reduce trespassing on railroad property by providing access to this information.

Similarly to the FRA Safety Map, users have the ability to view maps in multiple forms, as well as add layers, including Class I Railroads and Main Line Rail.

The FRA Trespassers Casualty Map also allows users to view:

• Where trespassing accidents and fatalities occur
• Trends of where accidents are most concentrated
• Details on what occurred at accident locations
• Outline of Class I Railroad networks

Community Rail Explorer

The Community Rail Explorer tool is an interactive web application that combines data from the US DOT Transportation Community (TC) Explorer, the North American Rail Network (NARN), the FRA Grade Crossing Inventory, and the 2020 Census. The tool allows users to understand rail infrastructure and potential improvement  projects across the rail network in the context of the surrounding communities and to better identify transportation investments that can benefit communities, including rural and tribal communities.   

The Community Rail Explorer also assists project sponsors with responding to notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) information requirements by providing multiple required data layers in one tool. 

• View Web Map (AGOL hosted on ESRI server)
• View PDF User Guide
• To view presentation materials from the December 6, 2023 webinar, visit FRA's Webinars webpage, Grants & Loans drop-down. 

​