BNSF Railway

Overview

BNSF Railway is the biggest freight railroad in the United States. It is one of six major railroads in North America. BNSF has over 33,000 miles of tracks in 28 states and uses more than 8,000 locomotives. The railroad has three routes that connect the western and eastern parts of the country.

History

The company was created in 1995 when a new group bought two big railroads, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Burlington Northern Railroad. These two railroads were joined together in 1996, and in 2005, the name was changed to BNSF Railway. In 2010, Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., bought BNSF.

Operations

BNSF is very good at moving many different kinds of cargo, especially goods that are moved by many different modes of transport, like trucks and ships. It also carries large amounts of bulk items, such as coal.

Leadership

The company is based in Fort Worth, Texas and Kathryn Farmer is the current leader of BNSF. BNSF and its main competitor, the Union Pacific Railroad, are the two biggest railroads for long-distance freight trips in many parts of the United States. They often use each other’s tracks to reach different places.

History

Main articles: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad

BNSF Railway started in 1849 with small railroads in Illinois and Missouri. These railroads grew into bigger networks, including the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway began in 1859 and built one of the first railroads across North America, linking Chicago to Southern California and other areas.

The Burlington Northern Railroad formed in 1970 by joining several railroads together. It later absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway in 1980.

BN-ATSF merger

In 1994, Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway announced plans to merge. This created one of the largest railroads in North America. The merger was approved in 1995 and finished in 1996.

The merger with another large railroad changed BNSF's network. BNSF gained access to new routes, helping connect more places across the country.

Acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway

In 2009, the company Berkshire Hathaway offered to buy BNSF. The deal finished in February 2010, making BNSF part of Berkshire Hathaway.

Acquisition of Montana Rail Link

In January 2022, BNSF agreed to buy Montana Rail Link, a smaller railroad. The purchase was approved in March 2023, and BNSF took over Montana Rail Link's operations on January 1, 2024.

Proposed merger with CSX Transportation

In August 2025, there were talks about BNSF merging with another large railroad. However, BNSF's parent company said they were not planning to merge and were only discussing new services together.

Operations

BNSF Railway is one of the biggest freight railroads in the United States. It has many employees and a large network of tracks across many states. The railroad moves many types of goods, including coal and grain, using special trains called unit trains.

The railroad has three main routes that connect the western and eastern parts of the country. It also has special tracks for moving containers and trailers from places like California to Chicago. BNSF works with many cities and places to help move goods efficiently across the United States.

Markets and services

With BNSF's large system, it hauls many different commodities, most notably coal and grain, as well as intermodal freight.

Predecessor Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) entered Wyoming's low-sulfur coal-rich Powder River Basin in the 1970s through construction of the Powder River Basin Joint Line with Union Pacific Railroad predecessor Chicago and North Western Transportation Company. Coal goes north in unit trains on the three-to-four-track Joint Line to Gillette or south to Orin, where older BN lines and other railroads take it in all directions to coal-burning power plants.

BNSF serves over 1,500 grain elevators, located mostly in the Midwest on former BN lines. Depending on where the markets are, this grain may move in any direction in unit trains or wait in silos for demand to rise. Most commonly, grain may move west on the Northern Transcon to the Pacific Northwest and its export terminals, or south to ports in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's main contribution to BNSF was the Southern Transcon, a fast intermodal corridor connecting Southern California and Chicago. Most traffic is either trailers of trucking companies such as intermodal partner J. B. Hunt, or containers from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The latter begins its trip on the triple-track Alameda Corridor, shared with the Union Pacific Railroad, and then follows BNSF rails from downtown Los Angeles. Its route, the Southern Transcon, has been almost completely double-tracked, and triple-tracking has begun in areas such as Cajon Pass.

BNSF transports Boeing 737 fuselages from the Wichita, Kansas plant to Renton, Washington.

Finances

Trackage

BNSF Railway directly owns and operates track in 28 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 km) section that runs from the U.S.–Canada border to Vancouver, British Columbia, some tracks and a yard in Winnipeg, Manitoba, approximately 70 miles (110 km) of joint track with the Canadian National Railway, which runs south to the U.S. border at Emerson, Manitoba, and less than a kilometer of trackage at the border in Northgate, Saskatchewan.

For administrative purposes, BNSF is divided into two regions and ten operating divisions. The North Region includes the Montana, Northwest, Twin Cities, Heartland and Powder River divisions. The South Region includes the Red River, California, Chicago, Kansas and Southwest divisions. Each division is further divided into subdivisions, which represent segments of track ranging from 300-mile (480 km) mainlines to 10-mile (16 km) branch-lines. The former Texas and Gulf divisions were combined into the Red River Division, and the former Springfield and Nebraska divisions were combined into the Heartland Division, in the spring of 2016.

Not including second, third and fourth main-line trackage, yard trackage, and siding trackage, BNSF directly owns and operates over 24,000 miles (39,000 km) of track. When these additional tracks are counted, the length of track which the railway directly controls rises to more than 50,000 miles (80,000 km).

Additionally, BNSF Railway has gained trackage rights on more than 8,000 miles (13,000 km) 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 leases, mileage equalizations, and other contractual arrangements.

Yards and facilities

BNSF operates various facilities all over the United States, plus a yard in Winnipeg, to support its transportation system. 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.

BNSF Railway also operates numerous transfer facilities throughout the western United States to facilitate the transfer of intermodal containers, trailers, and other freight traffic. BNSF Railway has direct control over a total of 33 intermodal hubs and 23 automotive distribution facilities.

The BNSF mechanical division operates 13 locomotive maintenance facilities that perform preventive maintenance, repairs and servicing of equipment. The largest of these facilities are located in Alliance, Nebraska and Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kansas. The mechanical division also controls 46 additional facilities responsible for car maintenance and daily running repairs.

The BNSF system mechanical division, a subset of the mechanical division, operates two maintenance-of-way work equipment shops, responsible for performing repairs and preventive maintenance to BNSF's track and equipment, in Brainerd, Minnesota and Galesburg, Illinois. The system mechanical division also operates the Western Fruit Express Company's refrigerated car repair shop in Spokane, Washington.

On October 1, 2022, BNSF Railway announced plans to construct a $1.5 billion state of the art master planned rail facility in Southern California, the first such facility developed by a Class I railroad. The Barstow International Gateway, encompassing approximately 4,500 acres (1,800 ha, 7.0 sq mi), an integrated rail facility, will be located on the west side of Barstow, California. This new facility, when built, will enable more efficient rail operations from the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach to trains for transport through the Alameda Corridor onto the BNSF mainline to the new facility, and then move across the nation on the eastbound BNSF route network.

In June 2024, BNSF Railway announced plans to develop the Surprise Intermodal/Logistics Center, a regional rail-served facility near Phoenix, Arizona. The planned site is located in northwest Maricopa County and will cover 4,321 acres (1,749 ha) of land. The facility consists of three distinct, interrelated components:

• An intermodal facility on 1,770 acres (716 ha), which will provide a transfer hub for rail shipments by containers and trailers.
• A logistics park on 1,420 acres (575 ha), which will provide sites for warehouse and distribution facilities.
• A logistics center on 1,131 acres (458 ha), providing direct-rail-serviced sites for local industry.

Hump yards

Large freight car hump yards are located throughout the BNSF system.

• Barstow, California – Barstow Yard
• Galesburg, Illinois – Galesburg Yard
• Kansas City, Kansas – Argentine Yard
• Lincoln, Nebraska – Hobson Yard
• Memphis, Tennessee – Tennessee Yard
• Minneapolis, Minnesota – Northtown Yard
• Pasco, Washington – Pasco Yard
• Tulsa, Oklahoma – Cherokee Yard

Intermodal yards

Location of some intermodal yards:

• Cicero, Illinois – Chicago Cicero
• Chicago, Illinois – Corwith Intermodal Facility
• Commerce, California
• Edgerton, Kansas – Logistics Park Kansas City
• Elwood, Illinois – Logistics Park Chicago
• Hodgkins, Illinois – Willow Springs Intermodal Facility
• Haslet, Texas – Alliance Yard
• Los Angeles, California – Hobart Yard
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Oakland, California – Oakland International Gateway
• Omaha, Nebraska - Gibson Yard
• Seattle, Washington – Seattle International Gateway (SIG) Intermodal Facility

Routes

• The Northern Transcon runs between Seattle and Chicago. The route is a combination of parts of the old Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway.
• The Southern Transcon runs between Los Angeles and Chicago.
• The Powder River Basin supplies forty percent of the coal in the United States.

Operating divisions

The BNSF system is divided into 13 divisions grouped into three regions. Each division includes numerous subdivisions, normally comprising a single main line and branches. A fourteenth division, Colorado, has been consolidated with the Powder River Division, except for the Casper and Cody Subdivisions, which were transferred to the Montana Division.

Passenger train service

BNSF directly operates the BNSF Line for Metra in Chicago and the Sounder in the Puget Sound Region using BNSF-supplied crews in addition to running over its rails.

The company's network also hosts other commuter trains, including Metrolink in Southern California. The line used by New Mexico Rail Runner Express was sold in 2005 to the state of New Mexico, but BNSF retained all freight rights on the line and operates freight trains as needed. Amtrak routes that use BNSF rails include the Amtrak Cascades, California Zephyr, Carl Sandburg, Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, Gold Runner, Heartland Flyer, Illinois Zephyr, Lincoln Service, Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited, and Texas Eagle.

Although it does not have a steam program like the Union Pacific, the BNSF has allowed for the Southern Pacific 4449, St. Louis–San Francisco 1522, Santa Fe 3751, Santa Fe 2926, Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700 and Milwaukee Road 261 steam locomotives to operate excursions over their rails.

Safety

BNSF has received E.H. Harriman Award for safety multiple times.

As one of the leading supporters of the Operation Lifesaver program to promote safety at railway crossings and rights-of-way, BNSF Railway established a grade-crossing closure program in 2000.

In 2014, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered BNSF to pay over $526,000 to workers who had been terminated in 2010 and 2011 in contravention of provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act protecting whistleblowers after they revealed workplace injuries at the terminal in Havre, Montana.

Equipment

According to the 2007 BNSF Annual Report, at the end of 2007 the railway had more than 40,000 employees; 6,400 locomotives (8,359 as of 2018); and 85,338 freight cars (72,369 as of 2018).

On January 24, 2006, BNSF announced a US$2.4 billion program of infrastructure upgrades for 2006. The upgrade program includes: double- and triple-tracking 40 miles (64 km) of track and a second mainline track through New Mexico's Abo Canyon on the former ATSF transcontinental line; expanding the Lincoln, Nebraska, classification yard and double- and triple-tracking 50 miles (80 km) of track in Wyoming's Powder River Basin region; expansions at eight of the railroad's larger intermodal facilities, and extending many sidings and expanding and improving refueling facilities.

Locomotive paint schemes

After Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged in 1995 to form BNSF Railway, the company made new designs for its train engines. The first design, shown in August 1995 on SD70MAC No. 9647, mixed colors from both old railroads. It had red, silver, green, and cream, with “BNSF” written on it.

By 1996, BNSF started using a new look for its engines. In May 1996, an engine called SD60M No. 9297 showed a design with colors like orange, dark green, red, and silver. Employees helped pick simpler stripes for future engines, called Heritage I.

In 2005, BNSF changed its name and logo, and made a new engine design called Heritage III. This design used ideas from old styles but had black instead of dark green and the new BNSF logo. Since 2006, some engines used a version called Heritage IV, which looked like Heritage I but with black paint and the modern BNSF logo.

Some older engines still have their original designs, but many are being updated to modernise the fleet.

A BNSF train crosses Lake Ashtabula on the Sheyenne River west of Luverne, North Dakota. The Sheyenne River Bridge was built in 1912 by the Great Northern Railway. The North Country Trail, a long recreational path, runs under the bridge.

Lawsuits

BNSF Railway had to deal with legal actions over two different issues.

In 2015, the Swinomish Tribe in Washington state sued BNSF for breaking rules in a 1991 agreement. This agreement limited the number of train cars that could cross the Swinomish Reservation to 25 per day. The tribe said BNSF sent four times more cars than allowed. In 2023, a judge agreed, saying BNSF ignored these limits to make more money from September 2012 to May 2021. In June 2024, the judge ordered BNSF to pay the tribe $400 million.

In 2023, two wildlife groups, WildEarth Guardians and the Western Watershed Project, sued BNSF. They said BNSF did not follow laws meant to protect animals and did not try to reduce the number of grizzly bears that trains in Montana allegedly harmed since 2008. BNSF asked a government agency for permission that would remove any punishment for harming bears, but the agency did not give this permission. Because of this, the groups say BNSF is responsible.