News Release

BNSF Plans Track Maintenance Blitz Between Bakersfield and Fresno

Fort Worth, Texas, January7, 2004:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) will begin a $16.5 million track and bridge maintenance project on its main line between Bakersfield and Fresno, Calif., on January 8, 2004.

To minimize the impact on customers and communities, work that could have been spread across many months will be completed in a two-week period. This is one of the larger BNSF maintenance projects that will be accomplished in a compressed time frame. The affected communities between Bakersfield and Fresno will be Laton, Hanford, Corcoran, Wasco and Shafter.

According to Steve Anderson, General Director Line Maintenance, "the maintenance blitz allows BNSF to perform a large volume of track upgrades in a compressed time which will improve ride quality for Amtrak and facilitate freight movement between Bakersfield and Fresno."

The Bakersfield blitz project includes replacement of 12 track-miles of steel rail, the installation of 38,250 wood crossties and undercutting (drainage improved) 47,520 feet of track. The project will also include the installation of three new switches and upgrades to one bridge and 18 crossings.

To achieve the compressed schedule for the project, BNSF will bring in 300 additional employees from various parts of the railroad that will be assigned to specific track, rail and bridge renewal projects across the line.

BNSF plans to open the Bakersfield Subdivision for 14 hours each day to operate a limited number of trains on their regular routes. In addition, daily slots have been secured to operate trains on the Union Pacific Railroad. Customers have been notified about any temporary changes in their freight schedules.

Some highway-rail grade crossings along this rail line will be closed temporarily as maintenance crews reconstruct track. In most cases, an affected crossing will only be closed a few hours on a particular day. BNSF has worked closely with all the communities to plan crossing closure schedules and identify alternate routes for traffic.

Command centers will be situated in Fresno, Corcoran and Bakersfield where BNSF personnel will be stationed around the clock.

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with 32, 500 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 among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, transports the mineral components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough coal to generate about 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