Encyclopedia
The
BNSF Railway , headquartered in
Fort Worth, Texas, is one of the largest railroad networks in
North America . 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. 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.
BNSF trackage
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 section that runs from the U.S.-Canada border to
Vancouver, British Columbia and a yard in
Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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 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 .
Additionally, BNSF Railway has been able to gain trackage rights on more than 8,000 miles 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 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 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.
BNSF's northern route
Northern route overview
One of the routes operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe traverses the most northerly route of any
railroad in the western
United States. This route was originally part of the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad,
Northern Pacific Railway and Great Northern Railway systems, merged into the
Burlington Northern Railroad system in 1970. The route starts at
Chicago and runs west across northern
Illinois to the
Mississippi River; it follows the eastern shore of the river through
La Crosse and
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin before turning west again in
Minneapolis and
St. Paul, Minnesota to
Dilworth, Minnesota. From Dilworth the route runs northwest to
Minot, North Dakota, then west through
Montana and
Idaho to
Spokane, Washington. At Spokane the route splits into two routes, one going to
Seattle and the other to
Portland. This route required construction of the Flathead Tunnel through the
Rocky Mountains in
Montana and the new Cascade Tunnel through the
Cascade Mountains in
Washington. This route is traveled by
Amtrak's
Empire Builder is a passenger train [i] route operated by Amtrak [i] in the Midwest [i]ern and Northwest [i] ...
. Also owned in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada is trackage, running rights and a yard operated by a force of clerks, a switch unit and full crew and the track is maintained by a small track crew.
Traveling east from Seattle, Washington to the western portal of the Cascade Tunnel and Beyond...
Traveling east from the
King Street Station in
Seattle, the main line of the BNSF heads north through a tunnel under the downtown. After exiting the tunnel the main line continues north through the Interbay classification yard and maintenance facilities and across the
Lake Washington Ship Canal on the
Salmon Bay Bridge. The main line continues north along the shore of
Puget Sound through the cities of
Edmonds and
Mukilteo, past Rucker Hill in
Everett to the old Everett station. From there the main line makes a 180 degree turn through a partially covered cut through downtown Everett to the new Everett station. From the new station, the main line heads south, then southeast along the
Snohomish River through the cities of
Snohomish and
Monroe. From Monroe the main line follows the
Skykomish River through the towns of
Index and
Skykomish to the western portal of the Cascade Tunnel.
BNSF's safety program
As one of the leading supporters of the
Operation Lifesaver program to promote safety at railway crossings and right-of-ways, the BNSF Railway, in 2000, established a grade-crossing closure program. This program, wherein BNSF works with communities and landowners to identify crossings that are unnecessary or redundant, has helped close over 2,900 of BNSF's railway crossings throughout the United States. Largely thanks to this program, BNSF has been the industry leader in lowering the amount of grade-crossing collisions.
On June 7, 2006, BNSF became the first
Class I railroad to actively recruit
railfans to help ensure the company's rail network remains safe. Called the Citizens United for Rail Security , BNSF designed a program that encourages railfans to enter a small amount of personal information on an official company website. After doing so, the website generates an identification card that can be printed off and carried in the same manner as a
driver's license or
credit card. Along with the user's personal information, the card contains a list of general guidelines for a railfan to follow while near tracks or moving equipment as well as a toll-free telephone number that can be used to alert a BNSF representative of any suspicious activities or potential security breaches.
BNSF has had a similar program called BNSF ON GUARD for employees since 2003. The program has been highly successful with over 200 employees reporting suspicious activities since its inception.
BNSF also contracts with , a small business in
Lincoln, Nebraska, to publish employee newsletters focused on safety for each of the railroad's 14 operating divisions and nearly all of it's system shops. These newsletters vary in length from 4 to 28 pages, published ranging from monthly to quarterly.
BNSF facts and figures
According to BNSF's 2005 Annual Report to Investors, at the end of 2005, the railway had more than 40,000 employees, 5,790 locomotives, and 81,881 freight cars.
- Broken down by specific kind of car, the BNSF owned:
- In addition, the railway also owned:
- 10,412 domestic containers
- 12,649 domestic chassis
- 4,091 company service vehicles
- 1,916 trailers
- 179 commuter passenger cars
The average age from date of manufacture for the BNSF's locomotive and freight car fleet was 15 years at the end of 2005.
It may also be noted that on any given day BNSF is the single largest consumer of petroleum-based fuels in the world. The only larger consumer is the
US Navy during a full force wartime deployment.
On January 24 2006, BNSF announced a
$2.4 billion program of infrastructure upgrades for 2006. The upgrade program includes: double- and triple-tracking 40
miles of track and a second mainline track through
New Mexico's Abo Canyon on the former
Santa Fe Railroad transcontinental line; expanding the
Lincoln, Nebraska,
classification yard and double- and triple-tracking 50 miles 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. In making the announcement, BNSF chairman Matthew K. Rose cited improvements in the company's return on invested capital, and expressed hope for continued improvement.
BNSF paint schemes
The assortment of colors used on the BNSF makes it one of the most colorful large railroads in North America. Many locomotives, sometimes affectionately called "pumpkins," are painted in "Heritage I" or "Heritage II" schemes, which are based on the Great Northern Railroad's colors of orange and dark green. Beginning in 2005, the "New Image" paint scheme was born. Some locomotives are painted in Santa Fe's famous silver-and-red "warbonnet" scheme, sometimes with "BNSF" painted on the sides instead of "Santa Fe". Even more locomotives continue to wear the green and white or blue and yellow colors of the two railroads that merged to create the BNSF. It is to note, however, that all engines are planned to be painted into Heritage colors as they undergo overhauls.
On January 24 2005, the railroad introduced a new logo to replace the circle and cross logo of
Santa Fe heritage. The new logo symbolizes the railroad's goals to be "a leader in transportation service and innovation."
This logo also marks a move away from the more verbose
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway moniker displayed in the old logo. The "Heritage III" paint scheme was introduced soon after, featuring the new logo painted on the nose and sides of the locomotive and black stripes instead of green. So far, not very many locomotives have this paint scheme, apparently because BNSF wants to use up the rest of the decals used for the Heritage II scheme. BNSF has also rolled out a number of freight cars featuring the new company logo.
Several paint schemes were tried out before Heritage I was put into service. One engine, was painted in a hybrid scheme, with the shapes used in Santa Fe's "Warbonnet" scheme in Burlington Northern's colors. Reactions to this scheme were generally negative, and the engine has acquired such nicknames as "warvomit" and "barfbonnet." Two slightly different experimental paint schemes were used on one unit, The left side had small additional stripes.
Heritage I The original cross and circle company logo is displayed on the nose of the locomotive. On the sides, BNSF appears in dark green letters in the orange stripe. Solid yellow stripes separate orange and green. Side view photographed by Kevin Andrusia, front view by William H. Davis Jr.
Heritage II The green stripes are smaller than on Heritage I. Broader yellow stripes with black bands separate the orange and green. The BNSF text on the sides is now yellow and outlined in black. The logo on the front is the "cigar band" from the
ATSF warbonnet paint scheme, with BNSF printed across it. Sometimes the space on the nose under the lower yellow stripes is painted green, sometimes orange as shown here. Side view photographed by Chris Starnes, front view by Dave Touissant.
New Image This scheme, nicknamed "Powerbar" or "Swoosh", is very similar to Heritage II. The green stripes are now black and banded yellow stripes like those on Heritage II separate them from the orange stripe. The new company logo is displayed on the nose and sides of the locomotive. One locomotive, had the logo in yellow type with a black outline, but BNSF has decided to use the opposite as shown here. Side view photographed by Peter K. Bieber, front view by Chris Lastovich.
Supreme court case: BNSF Co. & White
The United States Supreme Court heard a case in June of 2006 brought by Sheila White against her employer, BNSF, over retaliation taken against her when she complained about sexual harassment. She was moved from operating a
forklift truck to a more arduous position involving the use of hundred pound sledge hammers. When she complained about this retaliatory move taken against her, she was suspended without pay for 37 days. Her suspension was later reversed, and back pay was issued. Nonetheless, she won a jury award of $43,500 from BNSF. The jury's award was appealed all the way to the
United States Supreme Court, but was upheld by a 9-0 ruling.
See also
External links
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- - Historical society
- - Official company merchandise
References
- BNSF Railway , . Retrieved January 25 2005.
- BNSF Railway , . Retrieved February 10 2005.
