News Release

BNSF Announces Lease of Texas Line to TIBR

FORT WORTH, TEXAS -- September 3, 2002:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) today announced the lease of about 100 miles of track between Kirbyville and Tenaha, Texas, to the Timber Rock Railroad Company (TIBR). Timber Rock Railroad is owned by Watco Companies, Inc., which is headquartered in Pittsburg, Kan.

The 10-year lease includes all connecting sidings, spurs, and sidetracks; and yard, industrial, team and switching tracks. TIBR also will receive trackage rights of about 2.5 miles over BNSF for the purpose of interchanging traffic with BNSF at Tenaha.

Under the terms of the lease TIBR assumed rail operations over the line at 12:01 a.m. Central time September 3. TIBR will also interchange traffic with BNSF at Kirbyville. Major commodities moving over the line include minerals, forest products and agricultural products.

BNSF sold its line between Kirbyville and DeRidder, La., to TIBR in 1998. That sale along with the lease of the Kirbyville-Tenaha trackage are part of BNSF’s ongoing initiative to provide efficient rail service to its customers.

“We will continue to invest in growth and seek the maximum use of capital to support that growth,” says Pete Rickershauser, BNSF’s vice president, Network Development. “Shortline operators can provide valuable and efficient service that can support our growth plans by feeding us traffic through service offerings closely tailored to their shippers’ needs. We have found the Watco organization to be nimble and competent service providers when dealing both with us and with our mutual customers, and we look forward to their successful operation of this BNSF property.”

“We have had a great relationship with the BNSF, and we are excited about the opportunity to serve new customers,” said Rick Webb, Watco President and CEO. “Our success has been built on a foundation of Customer service, and we are looking forward to getting to know our new Customers and communities.

“We have been working on this project for several months and are confident of a seamless transition. By working together, I know that the partnership between the BNSF and Watco will bring added value to our Customers in east Texas.”

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com. The railway is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, transports the mineral components of many of the products we depend on daily, moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, and hauls enough coal to generate more than 10 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

Watco Companies’ acquisition of the Timber Rock Railroad was an obvious choice when the BNSF offered it for sale in 1998. TIBR’s Kirbyville-DeRidder main line track serves, among others, Watco’s founding operation (an industrial switching operation in DeRidder), and in addition to its interchanges with the BNSF at Kirbyville and Tenaha, TIBR also interchanges with the Kansas City Southern Railway at DeRidder. Across its original 40-plus miles of main line, the TIBR carries a healthy 15,000 carloads annually, with lumber and coal making up the majority of the loads. As with all Watco Railroads, the TIBR prides itself on providing fast, efficient and effective service, ranking above industry average in recent customer awareness surveys.

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