News Release

BNSF Demonstrates Commitment to Grade Crossing Safety 3,000th Grade Crossing Closed Since 2000

FORT WORTH, Texas, March 30, 2006:

BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) today announced a major safety milestone, closure of its 3,000^th grade crossing, at Belle Plaine, Kan.

"BNSF has always put a high priority on grade crossing safety and we are proud of this significant achievement," says Mark Schulze, BNSF’s vice president, Safety, Training and Operations Support. "BNSF has one of the lowest highway-railroad grade crossing collision rates in our industry. As an industry leader, we will continue to work with the states and communities we serve to further improve grade crossing safety."

BNSF’s grade crossing closure program started in 2000 as a concerted effort to close redundant and unnecessary at-grade highway-rail crossings. Since 2000, BNSF’s grade crossing incident rate has decreased more than 30 percent, from 3.34 incidents per million train miles in 2000 to 2.33 in 2005, according to Federal Railroad Administration data.

Across its 32,000-route-mile network, BNSF today has approximately 31,500 crossings, including overpasses and underpasses. Of these, about 27,500 are highway-rail at-grade crossings, including about 18,000 public crossings, 9,300 private crossings and 200 pedestrian crossings.

"While this represents a major achievement, we still have more opportunities to close grade crossings as well as continue community education and awareness," Schulze adds.

Each year, BNSF spends nearly $90 million on programs related to grade crossing safety, Schulze pointed out. This includes funding of education and program activities, crossing signal maintenance and vegetation control.

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