News Release

BNSF Named to InfoWorld 100 For Voice Train Reporting System

FORT WORTH, Texas, November 23, 2004:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) has received top recognition from InfoWorld magazine for BNSF’s voice train reporting system, which combines innovation, cost savings and efficiency. The new technology put BNSF sixth among the magazine's rankings of 100 technology advancements by leading companies. The rankings are available online at: http://infoworld.com/2187.

The annual awards honor companies that demonstrate the most creative use of cutting-edge technologies to further their business goals. Companies were nominated by InfoWorld readers, technology partners, and end-user companies in late summer. Solutions had to stretch beyond the typical, off-the-shelf solution, using multiple technologies in innovative ways to serve well-defined business goals.

"It is a real honor for BNSF to receive this award," says Jeff Campbell, BNSF’s vice president Technology Services and chief information officer. "It recognizes the hard work done by Team BNSF and our technology partners, as well as our leadership in applying technology to meet our customers' expectations."

"This year, InfoWorld honors a host of innovative projects that highlight the resourcefulness of the IT community," said Eric Knorr, InfoWorld's senior features editor. "IT departments have learned hard lessons about business realities and realistic ROI. The InfoWorld 100 provides a forum for IT managers to get the recognition they deserve for smart projects from an audience of their peers."

With help from voice software vendors ScanSoft and Intervoice, BNSF built the voice train reporting system, using engine cab radios and cell phones as an interface to a speech-enabled, interactive voice response (IVR) system. Conductors report train arrivals, departures, pickups and setouts, and the system automatically turns voice calls into data that can be stored in the company databases running on IBM mainframe computers in Topeka, Kan.

BNSF moved beyond technology that required conductors to write their reports or call them in to operators who would fill them out, taking hours to get information entered into the company's datacenter.

"We were looking to get more real-time information," says Shannon McGovern, BNSF’s director, Network Support Systems. "As it was, data would be up to 12 hours old, so we wanted to get it earlier."

According to InfoWorld, "The BNSF project illustrates how voice recognition technology can meet unique challenges. ‘The key distinction [from mainstream speech recognition] is that the software was tuned to characteristics of the radio channel,’ notes Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates, a speech recognition consulting company."

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with about 32,500 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. The railway is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, transports the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough low-sulphur coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.

InfoWorld Media Group is a division of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and event company. IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers and offers online users the largest network of technology-specific sites around the world through IDG.net (www.idg.net), which comprises more than 300 targeted Web sites in 70 countries. IDG is also a leading producer of 168 computer-related expositions worldwide, and provides IT market analysis through 51 offices in 43 countries worldwide. Company information is available at www.idg.com.

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