News Release

American Honda Premier Partner Program Honors BNSF as a Top Supplier for 2003

FORT WORTH, Texas, September 03, 2003:

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Koichi Amemiya along with President and Chief Operating Officer Koichi Kondo recently presented the company's "Premier Partner Award" for excellence in quality, value and customer service to The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company of Fort Worth, Texas. BNSF was one of 15 suppliers selected out of the 74 nominated companies that service American Honda nationwide. BNSF is the only transportation company that was selected for this honor.

BNSF plays an integral role in providing Honda with innovative transportation solutions to ensure their vehicles reach the market place.

"It is a great honor to be named a Premier Partner for the sixth consecutive year," says Marc Allen, assistant vice president, Automotive Marketing. "Like Honda, BNSF is committed to quality and continuous improvement and has worked to develop tailored services to meet Honda's needs."

The Awards were established in 1998 to recognize suppliers who embrace American Honda's philosophy of meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

"We are extremely pleased to honor Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and the other American Honda suppliers who continually provide us with invaluable services that consistently meet and exceed our expectations," said Gary Kessler, American Honda's vice president of human resources and administration. "Our suppliers' support is critical to Honda's success as a company and largely enables us to achieve our goal of providing our customers with the highest quality products and customer service."

Honda began operations in North America in 1959 with the establishment of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Honda's first overseas subsidiary. Using domestic and globally-sourced parts, Honda began assembling motorcycles in America in 1979, with U.S. automobile manufacturing starting in 1982. Honda designs, manufactures and markets its products in North America and worldwide. Honda currently builds products in 12 manufacturing plants in North America, with three major R&D centers in the U.S.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 32,500 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. Moving more than 2 million new vehicles annually, BNSF hauls one out of every eight new cars or trucks sold in the United States. 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 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