About Transportation

2025 National Transportation Strategy

The (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.

Cover of the 2024 Accomplishments Report

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

A report summarizing the achievements of the National Park Service’s Federal Lands Transportation Program (FLTP) for fiscal year 2024 is now available.

Multimodal Transportation

Bike and Ped = Active Transportation
Bikes, Pedestrians & Multi-use Trails

Trails connect places in a way that allows visitors to leave their cars behind. Bike shares help urban travelers navigate parks.
Powerful People Movers
Buses & Shuttles

Buses and shuttle systems help alleviate the impacts of private automobiles on your national parks and reduce congestion.
Tours and Transportation
Ferries and Water-Based Transportation

Almost 13 million passengers ride ferries in national parks each year.

Infrastructure & Stories

Making the impossible possible
Bridges

Spanning rivers and valleys, bridges were an essential part of the making of America.
Harnessing the Power of Water
Canals

Canals have witnessed history, bringing goods and people to places that would have otherwise been difficult to reach.
How Autos Changed the World
Roads, Routes and Highways

National Parks and cars grew up together. As automobiles evolved, so did National Parks.
Crossing a continent
Trains and Railroads

Running on rails, trains traversed the north american continent and brought a nation together quicker than ever imagined.
Roads to the Future
Transportation and Social Change

Transportation helps people and goods get from ”A” to “B,” but these networks also inspire social change and foster the spread of ideas.
Moving Mountains
Tunnels

Tunnels cut through mountains and shave days off of journeys, greatly advancing transportation in America.
Moving men and supplies
War and Transportation

Many of Americas early battles took place at the junction of roads and railways or bridge crossings and depended on moving men and supplies