News Release

Railroad Boasts "Love" for Truckers BNSF Celebrates National Truck Driver Appreciation Week

FORT WORTH, Texas, August 22, 2005:

BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) this week will honor the nation’s truck drivers by hosting events at BNSF Intermodal Facilities in Chicago, Ill.; Oakland, Calif.; San Bernardino, Calif.; Los Angeles, Calif.; and Seattle, Wash. These events celebrate National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, August 22-28.

More than 6,000 truck drivers are expected to enter these BNSF intermodal facilities during the events, see "BNSF Really Digs Your Rig" signage and enjoy lunch and refreshments passed out by BNSF’s truckload sales team and executives from BNSF’s trucking company partners, such as Gordon Trucking, Schneider National Inc., Swift Transportation Co., Inc. and U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc.

In addition to the events in California, Seattle and Chicago, eight other BNSF intermodal facilities across the railway’s 32,000-mile network are posting banners expressing BNSF’s appreciation of the nation’s truck drivers.

"These events are our way of saying thanks to our trucking company partners and their drivers who, along with railroad employees, are the backbone of ensuring the products American consumers use daily are delivered safely and efficiently," says John Hickerson, BNSF vice president, Domestic Intermodal. "By working together, trucks and trains are providing transportation solutions for companies across the nation."

Hickerson continues, "Intermodal continues to be a growth area for BNSF and BNSF’s truckload volume grew nearly 12 percent in the first half of 2005."

"Rail providers like BNSF are a vital link in today’s transportation and logistics industry. Increasing freight volume based on the strong U.S. import economy, and the driver shortage, continue to tax the industry’s resources. Relationships like the one we have with BNSF bring new capacity solutions to the marketplace through efficient and cost effective services with high reliability levels," says Bill Matheson, Schneider National Inc. vice president and general manager, Intermodal.

"BNSF’s participation in Truck Driver Appreciation Week is a perfect example of the integration between truckers and the railroads in this day and age. We have become connected at the hip, from a strategic perspective," says Patrick Quinn, incoming Chair, American Trucking Associations, and President, U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. "The ability for truckers and BNSF to meet customer requirements rests solely on our ability to maintain a cost-effective and efficient supply chain and our people are the key. BNSF appreciates our drivers and we appreciate the partnership that has developed between our industries."

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF Railway operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with about 32,000 route miles in 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 Railway is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.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