Environmental Protection

According to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), rail is by far the safest way to move hazardous materials (hazmat). In 2007, 99.996 percent of rail hazmat shipments arrived at their destination safely. In fact, railroads have reduced overall hazmat accident rates by 88 percent since 1980 and 39 percent since 1990. Overall, the safety record for hazmat shipments on rail is far better than the comparable record for trucks.

In 2009, BNSF's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) reportable accidents rate was less than three accidents per million train miles traveled.

BNSF handles about 1 million hazmat shipments each year and, on average, only 0.002 percent of these shipments are involved in an accident that results in a release of hazmat to the environment. Because any amount of material that leaks from any container is counted as a release, a single train accident can result in a report of multiple releases.

Training local emergency responders

Our environmental team has a strong commitment to training local responders on hazmat awareness and emergency response. We want to ensure that we can work with communities and respond quickly in the unlikely event that a hazmat emergency occurs.

We focus on identifying and training fire departments and emergency responders in smaller communities along our rail lines, areas where trained emergency responders are less common. In 2008, BNSF completed 203 training sessions, including approximately 4,500 responders.

As a result of our efforts, BNSF was awarded the National Achievement Award from the National TRANSCAER® (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) Task Group for the ninth time since 1998. The award committee, which includes members of the American Chemistry Council, AAR, National Tank Truck Carriers and the Chlorine Institute, presents the award to the TRANSCAER® partner or company that does the most to help communities prepare for hazmat transportation emergencies.

BNSF has also received transportation achievement awards from several shippers, recognizing BNSF as a leading transportation carrier.