How important is freight to Minnesotans? A healthy freight system carries the raw materials, grain, and products from the state’s key industries—manufacturing, mining, forestry, agriculture, transportation, and specialized medical equipment among them—to buyers throughout the world. It brings products to consumers and businesses by rail, road, river, air, lake, and land.
A growing part of the Minnesota economy, freight tonnage is expected to increase 50 percent by 2050. Freight-related industries make up approximately 40 percent of all employment. An efficient freight system offers the state’s industries a competitive edge.
CTS's new Freight 101 Webinar Series is exploring how the freight system, including key modes, works across Minnesota. The series is being held in conjunction with CTS’s 2025 thematic focus, "Unpacking Freight: From Producers to Front Doors.”
Freight throughout the state
The first webinar in the series offers an overview of the state’s freight system and a look at the Minnesota Department of Transportation's (MnDOT) newly updated Minnesota State Freight Plan.
“Freight is the backbone of our economy,” says Andrew Andrusko, webinar presenter and freight and railroad planning director for MnDOT. “This system is really well connected and one of the strengths of Minnesota.”
In the video of the January 30 webinar, Andrusko reviews the updated freight plan, which explains the state’s current freight system, highlights trends, and sets goals and actions to move Minnesota freight forward. The plan also identifies key freight investments and builds on other initiatives such as district freight plans and previous studies.
View Freight 101: Minnesota State Freight Plan webinar video and presentation materials
How much do you know about freight in Minnesota? Take this quick quiz!
Freight by waterway
Minnesota’s maritime freight industry moves via waterways the raw materials used to make what people use in everyday life—from the grain in pasta to the concrete for buildings to the steel in automobiles and appliances.
In Freight 101: Maritime Freight (presented on February 6), Deb DeLuca, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, and Kathryn Sarnecki, chief development officer of the Saint Paul Port Authority, highlight aspects of Minnesota’s marine freight system with a focus on Lake Superior and the Mississippi River.
Consider the Port of Duluth-Superior, the largest port on the Great Lakes by tonnage and the westernmost point of the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Seaway System that reaches the Atlantic Ocean. “The port has a large economic impact,” DeLuca says in a video of the webinar. "It really has been an economic driver for the region since the late 1800s.” Today, the port generates $1.6 billion of economic activity. This includes transporting iron ore for steelmaking, which accounts for 55 percent of port shipments.
In St. Paul, the inland river shipping network helps Minnesota farmers transport their products to the rest of the world. “On the Mississippi, agriculture is king, and corn and soybeans are huge,” Sarnecki says.
More than 60 percent of the country’s grain exports move by barge on the Mississippi. Other imports on the river system include cement, salt, sand, gravel, fertilizer, and coal. Five to eight million in tonnage flows through the Minnesota river system annually.
View Freight 101: Maritime Freight webinar video and presentation materials
Test your Minnesota maritime freight smarts with this quick quiz!
More in the series
CTS and its partners are hosting several additional webinars in the Freight 101 series, including:
- Aviation: March 6, noon–1 p.m.
- Rail: March 27, noon–1 p.m.
- Urban Freight Delivery and Logistics: April 3, 1–2 p.m.
Learn more about CTS's "Unpacking Freight" theme and check out the latest research and resources about freight in Minnesota.
—Darlene Gorrill, contributing writer
