Click to download full report.

Modern transit and passenger rail systems—like our highways and freight rail systems—are critical infrastructure for a prosperous economy and are major generators of jobs and economic growth. They also benefit our environment.

A new report from the Environment Law and Policy Center and the BlueGreen Alliance shows that in addition to these familiar benefits, transit and passenger rail systems also support extensive manufacturing businesses and jobs across the country—both in communities local to and far from the transit systems themselves.

This report—Passenger Rail & Transit Rail Manufacturing in the U.S.—mapped the transit and passenger rail manufacturing footprint and found more than 750 companies in at least 39 states manufacturing components for transit and passenger rail today.

Specifically, we found:

• 24 facilities manufacturing and assembling rail cars or locomotives for the transit or passenger rail industries;
• 188 facilities manufacturing major rail components or systems; and
•  542 additional companies manufacturing sub-component, materials (such as steel, fabric and glass), infrastructure (such as track and signaling), and carrying out repair and remanufacturing for the passenger rail industry, in just two regions. Nationwide the sub-component supply chain is certainly even larger.

The bottom line is that rail and transit manufacturing support good jobs around the country and are poised to grow. Click the link below to read the full report.