Planning professionals at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet have developed an updated Statewide Rail Plan (SRP) for 2025. The Rail Plan lays out a strategy for investments and needed steps designed to increase Kentucky's economic growth, improve quality of life, and improve equity of the state's most vulnerable and impacted communities. In addition to the Rail Plan, a Rail Infrastructure Assessment was conducted and completed in 2024. This was a "boots on the ground" effort to gauge the current conditions of rail infrastructure within the state.
2025 Statewide Rail Plan overview:
The plan meets the federal government's Moving Ahead for Progress (MAP-21) transportation goals and Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act requirements,
Presents priorities and strategies to guide future rail service enhancements for the public,
Outlines rail transportation's role within the Kentucky transportation system,
Coordinates with other state transportation planning goals and programs including the State Freight Plan and Long-Range Statewide Transportation Plan.
The 2025 Statewide Rail Plan replaces the prior 2015 Statewide Rail Plan as Kentucky's Official Rail Plan.
Chapter Outline:- The Role of Rail in Kentucky's Transportation System
- Existing Condition of Kentucky's Rail Network
- Proposed Passenger Rail Improvements and Investments
- Proposed Freight Rail Improvements and Investments
- Kentucky's Rail Service Investment Plan
- Public / Stakeholder Outreach
To view / download the full Rail Plan Report, Infrastructure Assessment, Executive Summary, individual chapters, and appendix documents, please click on the links below.
To supplement the 2025 SRP, a data dashboard was also developed to provide users with a quick method of retrieving spatial and tabular rail data pertaining to their specific needs. Users can filter by Railroad Operator, FRA Track Classification, County Boundary, House and Senate Districts, etc. Once selections are made, the dahsboard will automatically populate the map with the user selected data. Individual layer selections can be reset or the entire application can be reset if you need to start over. The data dashboard application is available at the top of this webpage. The data dashboard can also be accessed on the ArcGIS Online website by clicking here.
