Document and Entity Information	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2012	Apr. 13, 2012
Document and Entity Information [Abstract]
Entity Registrant Name	TRINITY INDUSTRIES INC
Entity Central Index Key	0000099780
Document Type	10-Q
Document Period End Date	Mar. 31, 2012
Amendment Flag	true
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2012
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q1
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		80,263,121
Amendment Description	On April 26, 2012, Trinity Industries, Inc. (the "Company") filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2012 (the "Original Form 10-Q"). As a result of an inadvertent error by the Company's filing service provider, the XBRL exhibits to the Original Form 10-Q did not contain all necessary XBRL information. This Form 10-Q/A contains revised XBRL exhibits, but otherwise is unchanged from the Original Form 10-Q.