BNSF
Railway - (en)
The BNSF Railway (AAR reporting marks BNSF), headquartered in Fort Worth,
Texas, is one of the four remaining transcontinental railroads and one of
the largest railroad networks in North America (only one competitor, the
Union Pacific Railroad, is larger in size). With globalization, the
transcontinental railroads are a key component in the containerization of
the Pacific Rim with the BNSF Railway moving more intermodal traffic than
any other rail system in the world. It was formed December 31, 1996 as the
Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway when the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Railway was merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad. In 1999
the BNSF Railway and the Canadian National Railway announced their
intention to merge and form a new corporation entitled the North American
Railways to be headquartered in Montreal, Canada. However the United
States' Surface Transportation Board (STB) placed a 15 month moratorium on
all rail mergers ending the merger. On January 24, 2005, the railroad's
name was officially changed to BNSF Railway.
The BNSF Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Corporation, the holding company formed by the September 22, 1995
merger of Burlington Northern, Incorporated and the Santa Fe Pacific
Corporation. According to corporate press releases, the BNSF Railway is
among the top transporters of intermodal traffic in North America, and
moves more grain than any other American railroad. It also hauls enough
coal to generate roughly 10% of the electricity produced in the United
States. The company's northern route completes the high speed link from
Asia to the eastern United States. This was the route of the Great
Northern Railway's Silk Extras in the 1920s. They had priority over all
other trains stopping only for refueling and crew changes. These trains
transported silk to the east from ships arriving from Japan to Seattle
ports.
BNSF trackage
An eastbound BNSF Railway train passes some maintenance of way equipment
in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, August 8, 2004. Lead unit is painted in
the Heritage II scheme.The BNSF Railway directly owns and operates track
in 27 U.S. states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado,
Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma,
Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and
Wyoming. The railway also operates a small amount of track in Canada,
including an approximate 30-mile (48 kilometer) section that runs from the
U.S.-Canada border to Vancouver, British Columbia and a yard in Winnipeg,
Manitoba and approximately 70 miles of joint track with the Canadian
National Railway which runs south to the U.S. border.
For administrative purposes, BNSF is divided into fourteen operating
divisions: California, Chicago, Colorado, Gulf, Kansas, Los Angeles,
Montana, Nebraska, Northwest, Powder River, Southwest, Springfield, Texas,
and Twin Cities. Each division is further divided into hundreds of
subdivisions, which represent segments of track ranging from 300-mile
mainlines to 10-mile branch-lines.
Not including second, third and fourth main line trackage, yard trackage,
and siding trackage, BNSF directly owns and operates over approximately
24,000 miles (38,624 kilometers) of track. When these additional tracks
are counted, however, the amount of track that the railway has direct
control over rises to more than 50,000 miles (80,467 kilometers).
Additionally, BNSF Railway has been able to gain trackage rights on more
than 8,000 miles (12,875 kilometers) of track throughout the United States
and Canada. These rights allow the BNSF to operate its own trains with its
own crews on competing railroads' main tracks. BNSF locomotives also
occasionally show up on competitors' tracks throughout the United States
and Canada by way of lease and other contractual arrangements.
BNSF yards and facilities
BNSF 880362, a tank car passing Glen Haven, Wisconsin, shows the new
corporate logo on June 3, 2006.BNSF operates various facilities all over
the United States to support its transportation system. Some of the
various facilities operated by the railway include yards and terminals
throughout its rail network, system locomotive shops to perform locomotive
service and maintenance, a centralized operations center for train
dispatching and network operations monitoring in Fort Worth, and regional
dispatching centers.
The BNSF Railway also operates numerous transfer facilities throughout the
western United States in order to facilitate the transfer of intermodal
containers, trailers, and other freight traffic. The BNSF Railway has
direct control over a total of 33 intermodal hubs and 23 automotive
distribution facilities. On February 9, 2005, BNSF announced that it plans
to build a new intermodal transfer facility near the port of Los Angeles;
the new facility, with direct rail access to the recently constructed
Alameda Corridor, would supplement the container transloading abilities of
the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) built by Southern
Pacific in the 1990s.
Large freight car hump yards are also scattered throughout the BNSF
system. In 2005, Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kansas processed the
largest number of freight cars.
The BNSF mechanical division is responsible for operating 8 locomotive
maintenance facilities involved with preventive maintenance, repairs and
servicing of equipment. The largest of these facilities are located in
Alliance, Nebraska and Topeka, Kansas. Furthermore, the mechanical
division also controls 46 additional facilities that are responsible for
car maintenance and daily running repairs.
Meanwhile, the BNSF system mechanical division, a subset of the mechanical
division, also operates two maintenance-of-way work equipment shops,
responsible for performing repairs and preventative maintenance to BNSF's
track and equipment, in Brainerd, Minnesota and Galesburg, Illinois. The
system mechanical division is also responsible for the operation of the
Western Fruit Express Company's refrigerated car repair shop in Spokane,
Washington.
In 2006, BNSF teamed with Vancouver, WA-based Tri Star to run BNSF's new
transload facility in Fontana, CA, near the California Speedway.
Routes
The Northern BNSF Route runs from Seattle, Washington to Chicago,
Illinois. It is the most northerly route of any railroad in the United
States.
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