News Release

BNSF Disappointed in KOMO Investigative Report

FORT WORTH, Texas, November 8, 2011 :

BNSF Railway is extremely disappointed that the KOMO investigative report relied heavily upon accusations from a plaintiff's attorney who is neither a homeland security expert nor a railroad operations expert. In fact, Mr. Jungbauer stands to financially benefit from disparaging the railroad's reputation and tainting jury pools in the Seattle area.

Further, BNSF is appalled that KOMO would unlawfully enter a restricted area to produce sensationalized accusations and exaggerated hypotheticals to attack rail safety and security. BNSF takes safety and security very seriously.

The report failed to recognize that there are numerous ways to immobilize a parked train such as removing essential equipment, tying down handbrakes or isolating electrical fields on the locomotive.

To ensure BNSF operations procedures are being properly followed, a voluntary audit of was initiated on Friday, Nov. 4. The audit found that every lead locomotive in the area was properly secured.

Most of BNSF's high volume main line track is controlled by what is called Centralized Traffic Control (CTC). On CTC track, a train cannot move on the track, nor can a switch from a siding be thrown to allow a train to move onto the main line without the dispatcher seeing it on their computer screen.

BNSF's computer system tracks every railcar, locomotive and train on its network, whether each car is loaded or empty, what each car is carrying, and how long each car or train is at a given location.

Since 9-11, railroad security has been coordinated 24/7 with first the FBI and later Homeland Security after that agency was created. BNSF has its own police force and also have long relied upon a partnership with local, state and federal law enforcement to help monitor and provide security for the railroad.

For obvious security reasons, we are unable to discuss details of those security efforts with the news media as doing so would compromise those efforts.

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
Fort Worth, TX 76131-2830
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000