Illinois Central Railroad

The Illinois Central Railroad (reporting markIC), sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States that operated independently from 1851 to 1998 and is today owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway.

Its primary routes connect Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. A line built in 1870 connects Chicago west to Sioux City, Iowa, while smaller branches reached Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from Cherokee, Iowa, in 1877 and Omaha, Nebraska, from Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1899. The IC also ran service to Miami, Florida, on tracks owned by other railroads.

The IC's construction was financed in part by a federal land grant, pioneering a method used by several other long-distance U.S. railroads. In 1998, the Canadian National Railway, via Grand Trunk Corporation, acquired control of the IC, and absorbed its operations the following year. The Illinois Central Railroad maintains its corporate existence as a non-operating subsidiary.

In 1971, Steve Goodman released a folk anthem, "City of New Orleans" about riding on Illinois Central's "Monday-morning rail" train and the passing of the "magic carpet" ride of passenger rail service in the United States, which once dominated travel.