Although rail freight transportation used to be the foundation of freight transportation in Japan, the volume of rail freight transportation has drastically been decreasing after 1965 due to expansion of expressways and the enriching of home-delivery services, and in a decade from 1975, at a late stage of JNR, freight trains and their facilities were organized substantially to be taken over to Japan Freight Railway Company for management rationalization.
かつて鉄道貨物は日本の貨物輸送の基軸を担っていたものの、昭和40年代以降、高速道路網の伸長、宅配サービスの充実などにより、貨物輸送量は激減した、昭和50年代の国鉄末期には、経営合理化のために、貨物列車や設備は大幅に整理された上で、JR貨物に引き継がれた。