Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad

Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad

MNA #1023, an EMD SD20
Reporting mark	MNA
Locale	Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri
Dates of operation	1992–present
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length	527 miles (848 km)
Headquarters	Carthage, Missouri

The Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad (reporting mark MNA) is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Carthage, Missouri.

MNA operates approximately 527 miles (848 km) of line in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. Its main line extends 384.1 miles (plus 40 miles (64 km) of trackage rights on Union Pacific Railroad lines) from Kansas City, Missouri, to Newport in Jackson County in northeastern Arkansas. (MNA interchanges with Union Pacific at both points). MNA also interchanges with BNSF Railway at Carthage, Aurora, Springfield, and Joplin, Missouri, and with the Kansas City Southern Railway at Joplin. Although the line still interchanges with the BNSF mainline at Lamar, the line no longer has a connection to the Pittsburg, KS to Nevada, MO. line, as the majority of that line, currently owned by the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, is abandoned on the Missouri side of the state line.

MNA also operates several miles of industrial trackage in the city of Springfield; this segment is disconnected from the rest of the MNA system and traffic is hauled via BNSF to and from the Aurora interchange.

MNA traffic generally consists of coal, grain, frozen foods, minerals, steel, chemicals, and asphalt. MNA operates unit coal trains to major power plants at Independence and Montrose, Missouri. In 2008, the railroad hauled around 111,000 carloads.