2025 National Transportation Strategy (Draft)
The National Transportation Strategy (NTS) is an update to the National Park Service’s 2017 National Long-Range Transportation Plan. It provides information about transportation challenges and opportunities that the National Park Service is facing and communicates agency priorities and strategies to address them. The NTS is consistent with and builds upon related NPS policies and strategic plans, including NPS Management Policies and Director’s Orders and the NPS Facility Investment Strategy.
2024 Annual Accomplishments Report
The National Park system includes more than 85 million acres of land in 433 national park units. These units are in every state and include national parks, national parkways, national monuments, national historic sites, national military parks, national battlefields, national memorials, national recreation areas, national scenic waterways, and national seashores. To reach these sites, visitors depend on accessible and safe transportation facilities such as trails, roads, bridges, ferries, transit, and more.Today, the National Park Service's transportation system includes:
- 5,600 miles of paved roads
- 7,500 miles of unpaved roads
- 1,334 road bridges
- 61 tunnels
- Approximately 100 transit and ferry systems with 30.5 million passenger boardings
- 1,000 miles of transportation trails
- Approximately 200 trail bridges
Multimodal Transportation
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Bike and Ped = Active TransportationBikes, Pedestrians & Multi-use TrailsTrails connect places in a way that allows visitors to leave their cars behind. Bike shares help urban travelers navigate parks.
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Powerful People MoversBuses & ShuttlesBuses and shuttle systems help alleviate the impacts of private automobiles on your national parks and reduce congestion.
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Tours and TransportationFerries and Water-Based TransportationAlmost 13 million passengers ride ferries in national parks each year.
Infrastructure & Stories
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Making the impossible possibleBridgesSpanning rivers and valleys, bridges were an essential part of the making of America.
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Harnessing the Power of WaterCanalsCanals have witnessed history, bringing goods and people to places that would have otherwise been difficult to reach.
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How Autos Changed the WorldRoads, Routes and HighwaysNational Parks and cars grew up together. As automobiles evolved, so did National Parks.
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Crossing a continentTrains and RailroadsRunning on rails, trains traversed the north american continent and brought a nation together quicker than ever imagined.
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Roads to the FutureTransportation and Social ChangeTransportation helps people and goods get from ”A” to “B,” but these networks also inspire social change and foster the spread of ideas.
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Moving MountainsTunnelsTunnels cut through mountains and shave days off of journeys, greatly advancing transportation in America.
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Moving men and suppliesWar and TransportationMany of Americas early battles took place at the junction of roads and railways or bridge crossings and depended on moving men and supplies
Related Subjects
Last updated: June 9, 2025