News Release

BNSF Announces Plan To Redesign Carload Service Network

Beaverton, Oregon, February 28, 2002:

A complete redesign of The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway Company’s carload service network was announced today by Matt Rose, BNSF’s president and CEO. Rose made the announcement at a Pacific Northwest Association of Rail Shippers seminar at Beaverton, Ore.

“Today, many of the efficiencies – and much of the service potential – of our carload service network is being lost through the inefficiencies of traditional carload gathering and distribution,” he told the shippers. “A redesign of the carload network must have as its basis the development of new gathering and distribution networks.”

He cited as examples of successful network designs BNSF’s coal, unit grain and intermodal networks. So far this year, BNSF has posted on-time performance levels of 100 percent for coal, more than 95 percent for unit grain trains, almost 95 percent for domestic intermodal and over 90 percent for international intermodal.

“BNSF took the initiative to redesign and rationalize those networks to take out the complexity inherent in trying to provide consistent, high-quality service to hundreds of locations,” Rose said. “Rationalization hasn’t been done without some friction, but having seen the task through, we’re now seeing the service and efficiency benefits of rationalized, focused networks.”

He said that redesigned carload gathering and distribution networks could include:

• Short lines and regional railroads;
• Distribution center strategies leveraging rail and highway networks; and
• Well-defined micro-networks, such as an existing BNSF rock transportation network.

“Even though the network redesign process is just getting started, we believe we already have some opportunities to improve service and efficiency,” Rose said. He cited BNSF’s guaranteed carload service in the I-5 Corridor between the Pacific Northwest and California and Arizona, as well as additional planned guaranteed carload service to and from the Pacific Northwest, as examples of the initial benefits of the carload network redesign.

“This year, we are going to re-energize our efforts by redefining the product and the guarantee,” Rose said. “Guaranteed service in these lanes will be different from our previous carload service in that it will involve targeted trains, be linked to transload and short-line channel partners, and leverage a focused gathering and distribution network.”

Rose said that making the carload rail network more efficient is one step toward improving the reliability and consistency of carload rail service. Improving service, and a pricing structure that reflects the value of that service, are among the keys to ensuring that North America’s rail network can meet long-term transportation needs, he said.

Rail shippers and railroads will have to work together to resolve the gathering and distribution infrastructure and other issues related to designing BNSF’s new carload network, Rose told the shippers. “Focusing resources ever more closely on a core system will allow us to provide more options for you, from more guaranteed carload service to carload reservations, that ultimately make you more competitive.”

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A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE: BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a wide variety of customer and supplier transactions. The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, and transports enough coal to generate more than 10 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