News Release

2001 Grade Crossing Incident Rate Down 14 Percent On BNSF

FORT WORTH, Texas, May 6, 2002 :

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) announced that its highway-rail grade crossing incident rate was down 14 percent in 2001 compared with 2000. Since 1995, the rate of grade crossing collisions on BNSF has declined by 45 percent – from 5.41 per million train miles in 1995 to a rate of 2.91 in 2001.

In 2001, BNSF sponsored more than 5,500 Operation Lifesaver Inc. classes on highway-railroad grade crossing safety. One-third of these were presented at drivers’ education classes, and another 650 were offered to adult drivers, as part of BNSF’s strategy to target higher risk populations. More than 1,200 courses were conducted with truck and school bus drivers, and 240 conducted with emergency response personnel.

Transportation safety, including safety at highway-railroad grade crossings, is one of the focus areas for National Transportation Week, May 12-18, 2002. For more information on National Transportation Week, see the website at http://www.ntweek.org/talking.htm.

“Educating the public about grade crossing safety laws is our first line of defense in preventing grade crossing collisions,” says Greg Stengem, vice president, Safety, Rules and Operations Support. “Hopefully, the reductions in grade crossing collisions we saw in 2001 reflect the public’s heightened awareness about grade crossing safety. Our goal is to get motorists to stop and think about their behavior as they approach grade crossings.”

A related safety initiative in 2001 was the focus on grade crossing closures. In 2001, BNSF closed 515 at-grade crossings, working closely with state agencies, communities and landowners to identify the best candidates for closure. In 2000, BNSF closed 635 grade crossings. “One of the best ways to minimize the risk is to reduce the number of at-grade crossings. As we look for closure candidates, we want to ensure that communities and landowners have effective routes to cross the tracks, while we also reduce the community’s potential exposure to risk. Our goal for 2002 is to close another 420, and we’ve already made substantial progress toward that goal,” explains Bob Boileau, assistant vice president, Engineering Services.

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. 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 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