Kentucky Transportation

Kentucky is served by five major interstate highways, nine parkways, and three bypasses and spurs. The parkways were originally toll roads, but on November 22, 2006, Governor Ernie Fletcher ended the toll charges on the William H. Natcher Parkway and the Audubon Parkway, the last two parkways in Kentucky to charge tolls for access.[70] The related toll booths have been demolished.[71]

Ending the tolls some seven months ahead of schedule was generally agreed to have been a positive economic development for transportation in Kentucky. In June 2007, a law went into effect raising the speed limit on rural portions of Kentucky Interstates from 65 to 70 miles per hour, with signs expected to be changed by mid-July.[72]

• Ashland, Kentucky (Amtrak station)
• South Portsmouth-South Shore (Amtrak station)
• Fulton (Amtrak station)

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Ashland, South Portsmouth and Fulton, Kentucky. The Cardinal, Trains 50 and 51, is the line that offers Amtrak service to Ashland and South Portsmouth. Amtrak Trains 58 and 59, the City of New Orleans serves Fulton. The Northern Kentucky area, is served by the Cardinal at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. The Museum Center is just across the Ohio River in Cincinnati.

As of 2004, there were approximately 2,640 miles (4,250.4 km) of railways in Kentucky, with about 65% of those being operated by CSX Transportation. Coal was by far the most common cargo, accounting for 76% of cargo loaded and 61% of cargo delivered.[73]

Bardstown features a tourist attraction known as My Old Kentucky Dinner Train. Run along a 20-mile stretch of rail purchased from CSX in 1987, guests are served a four-course meal as they make a two-and-a-half hour round-trip between Bardstown and Limestone Springs.[74] The Kentucky Railway Museum is located in nearby New Haven.[75]

Other areas in Kentucky are reclaiming old railways in rail trail projects. One such project is Louisville's Big Four Bridge. If completed, the Big Four Bridge rail trail will contain the second longest pedestrian-only bridge in the world.[76] The longest pedestrian-only bridge is also found in Kentucky — the Newport Southbank Bridge, popularly known as the "Purple People Bridge", connecting Newport to Cincinnati, Ohio.[77]

Kentucky's primary airports include Louisville International Airport (Standiford Field), Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and Blue Grass Airport. Louisville International Airport is home to UPS's Worldport, its international hub.[78] There are also a number of regional airports scattered across the state.

On August 27, 2006, Kentucky's Blue Grass Airport in Lexington was the site of a crash that killed 47 passengers and 2 crew members aboard a Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet designated Comair Flight 5191.[79] The lone survivor was the flight's first officer, James Polehinke, who doctors determined to be brain damaged and unable to recall the crash at all.[80] The NTSB's report has not yet been released, but reports state that the air traffic controller on duty at the time of the crash was working on approximately two hours of sleep[81], was working from out-of-date charts of the airport[82], and according to FAA rules, should have been working alongside another controller, which he was not.[83]

Being bounded by the two largest rivers in North America, water transportation has historically played a major role in Kentucky's economy. Most barge traffic on Kentucky waterways consists of coal that is shipped from both the Eastern and Western Coalfields, about half of which is used locally to power many power plants located directly off the Ohio River, with the rest being exported to other countries, most notably Japan.

Many of the largest ports in the United States are located in or adjacent to Kentucky, including

• Huntington-Ashland, largest inland port and 7th largest overall
• Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky, 5th largest inland port and 43th overall
• Louisville-Southern Indiana, 7th largest inland port and 55th overall

As a state, Kentucky ranks 10th overall in port tonage. [84] [85]

The only natural obstacle along the entire length of the Ohio River was the Falls of the Ohio, located just west of Downtown Louisville.

Kentucky Route 80 is the longest route in Kentucky, pictured here west of Somerset.

High Bridge over the Kentucky River was the tallest rail bridge in the world when it was completed in 1877.

A barge hauling coal in the Louisville and Portland Canal, the only man made section of the Ohio River