News Release

STB Approves BNSF's Plan to Construct Seven-Mile Rail Line in Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 27, 2001:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) today announced the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) has approved BNSF’s plan to construct a seven-mile rail line in Calhoun County, Texas, pending STB environmental review. The review is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter, prior to the statutory deadline of February 1, 2002. Construction is planned to begin in the first quarter of 2002 and is expected to be completed in 2003.

Last February, BNSF announced it had entered into an agreement with The Dow Chemical Company to provide Dow with competitive rail service to its petrochemicals plant in Seadrift, Texas, about 120 miles southwest of Houston. As part of this agreement, BNSF plans to construct a seven-mile rail line from Kamey to Seadrift, Texas. The new rail line will tie into BNSF’s rail network by way of trackage rights between Placedo and Kamey, Texas. Currently Dow’s Seadrift Operations is directly served by only one railroad.

“We are very pleased with the STB’s decision,” said George Duggan, vice president, BNSF Industrial Products Sales. “The construction of this rail line is a good example of providing competitive commercial solutions to the marketplace.”

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE: BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 33,500 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, and hauls enough coal to generate more than 11 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

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