News Release

BNSF Offers Perishables Shippers Equipment and Placement Guarantee

FORT WORTH, Texas, July 23, 2001:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) today announced that it will offer for the first time guaranteed availability and placement of refrigerated boxcars through its existing Loading Origin Guarantees (LOGS) program. Initially, about 50 percent of BNSF’s refrigerated loading capacity will be placed in the LOGS program, which equates to 140 loads per week.

The Loading Origin Guarantees program is an online auction that allows customers to secure in advance refrigerated boxcar capacity for a 4-, 5-, 13- or 26-week duration. BNSF will guarantee the availability and placement of empty rail-owned or controlled refrigerated boxcars for the scheduled shipping period or pay a default payment.

“Placing such a significant portion of our refrigerated fleet in the LOGS program ensures both large and small shippers have an equal opportunity to secure equipment,” said Dave Fleenor, assistant vice president, Perishables Marketing. “It also allows BNSF to improve its equipment utilization.”

The first auction for refrigerated equipment will be July 30, 2001 for shipments beginning the week of August 27. Shippers can find more information at BNSF’s Web site at http://www.bnsf.com/vicc/markets/perishables/carload.html.

The Loading Origin Guarantee Program was initially introduced by BNSF in January 2000 to enhance equipment efficiency for centerbeam railcars. It has since been expanded to include plain boxcars and now refrigerated boxcars.

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. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a wide variety of customer transactions. 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