TO SERVE CUSTOMERS

BNSF continuously invests in our network and our facilities in order to serve our customers with ever increasing safety, reliability and efficiency.

In 2023, BNSF plans to invest $3.96 billion in capital — bringing the 10-year total to nearly $40 billion.

Results of 2022 Capital Investments


214
Bridge Projects
 


2.6M
Railroad Ties Replaced


12.3K
Miles of Track Resurfacing/ Undercutting


377
Miles of Rail Replacement

What We Carried

Economic Development

When BNSF customers’ need for rail access grows, BNSF strives to grow along with them, meeting their shipping capacity needs and helping the local economies they support expand, as well. In 2022, BNSF customers and local economic development organizations invested more than $1.6 billion to establish or expand rail-served facilities. This level of investment in BNSF projects helped support the creation of more than 3,200 new jobs in local communities.

2022 economic development highlights include:

  • The Northwest Seaport Alliance, along with partners, invested more than a half-billion dollars to modernize its Terminal 5 facilities, helping it attract larger container ships and creating more than 2,000 jobs in the Puget Sound region.
  • ABDW Logistics invested $100,000 to lease a track near Galesburg, Illinois, to accommodate additional transloading opportunities.
  • HF Sinclair invested $350 million to add nearly 44,000 feet of track and a new facility south of their refinery in Artesia, New Mexico to accommodate inbound feedstock and outbound renewable diesel shipments.
  • GAF Materials invested $40 million to expand track and warehouse capacity at their Gainesville, Texas, facility.

Certified Sites

When they need to develop rail-served sites, BNSF customers save time and money by locating at BNSF Certified Sites. The BNSF Site Certification Program identifies strategically located rail-served, privately-owned industrial sites that are ready for immediate customer development. To be considered, sites must undergo a thorough analysis which includes an evaluation of environmental and geotechnical standards, available utilities, site availability and existing and proposed infrastructure. In 2022, BNSF added four new Certified Sites, including first-of-their-kind developments in the states of Nebraska, Washington and Wyoming, expanding our network to 33 locations.

Learn more about Certified Sites

Dodge City Business Park
  • Dodge City, Kansas
  • 244 acres
  • Light industrial zoning
  • Along US Highways 56 and 109
Reimann Industrial Center
  • Pasco, Washington
  • 150 acres
  • Industrial zoning
  • West of State Highway 395
  • Owned by the Port of Pasco
Seward/Lincoln Regional Rail Campus
  • Seward, Nebraska
  • 194 acres
  • Industrial zoning
  • Direct access to BNSF network
  • Immediate access to Interstate 80
Upton Logistics Center
  • Upton, Wyoming
  • Developable property
  • 295 acres of logistics center certified
  • Heavy industrial zoning
  • Operated by Tiger Transfer, a BNSF Premier Transloader
By locating facilities at a BNSF Certified Site, customers can
save 6 to 9 months of construction time.

A Century of Service

In 2022, BNSF reached a rare milestone: celebrating a century of service to one customer. Through our predecessor railways, BNSF began serving North Dakota Mill and Elevator when the facility in Grand Forks, North Dakota, opened in 1922, strategically located to access our rail network. From hauling the bushels of wheat that come into the mill to the tons of flour that come out, BNSF is a vital partner in the mill’s successful operations. Over the course of a century, BNSF and North Dakota Mill and Elevator have grown together, adding track and railcars and expanding operations as needed to meet increasing demand. This longstanding relationship reflects BNSF’s commitment to serving agricultural customers.

Learn more about this unique customer relationship

Technology

For our operators and our customers BNSF provides advanced technology to help ensure our shipments run as efficiently, reliably and economically as possible.

Solutions include:

  • Trip Optimizer – Energy Management Systems software on BNSF locomotives that factors key metrics such as train length, number and types of locomotives used and track conditions to help maximize a train’s fuel economy.
  • Terminal Throughput Planner – Assists terminal planners with determining the most efficient way to process trains through yards.
  • Movement Planner – Assists dispatchers with optimizing efficiency by looking further out to find the optimal route.

Together these technologies optimize traffic flow across our network and drive improved service consistency.

Maintenance and Expansion

Every year, BNSF invests billions of dollars to maintain our core network and related assets and to expand our capacity to handle our customers’ demand for increased volumes.

Our Southern Transcon route connects Southern California and the Midwest.

Major expansion projects worked on in 2022 to facilitate increased traffic along the Southern Transcon included:

  • Continuing a multi-year project to add 50 miles of new double track in Eastern Kansas.
  • Beginning a multi-year project to add 30 miles of new triple track between West Needles and Goffs, California, in the Mohave Desert.

New expansion projects to be launched in 2023 include a multi-year project to construct a second bridge over the Missouri River at Sibley, Missouri, eliminating one of the final single track segments on the Southern Transcon.

BNSF’s Northern Transcon route links the Pacific Northwest to the Upper Midwest.

Major expansion projects in 2022 to increase network fluidity included:

  • Completion of a multi-year bridge project near Sandpoint, Idaho, which will provide a second bridge over Lake Pend Oreille, allowing trains to cross in both directions simultaneously.
  • Completion of a rail bypass near Willmar, Minnesota, allowing trains to move an hour faster by bypassing the Willmar terminal, benefiting the region’s many agricultural customers, particularly during the busy grain harvest.
  • Replacement of the entire deck of the Gassman Coulee Trestle rail bridge near Minot, North Dakota, with completion ahead of peak harvest season.

New projects for 2023 will include constructing new siding near Pasco, Washington, and beginning a multi-year project to add double track near Spokane, Washington.

Intermodal Facilities

To grow along with our customers and meet their increasing capacity needs, BNSF continuously optimizes our intermodal facilities, expanding and improving processes at existing facilities, opening new ones in strategic locations, and looking ahead to create a new kind of facility to serve customers for years to come.

Cicero Intermodal Facility Expansion
One key project of 2022 was continuing the expansion of our Cicero Intermodal Facility in the crucial rail hub of Chicago. To accommodate growing shipper demands, we added an additional 400 parking stalls, and we are completing an in-yard overpass for trucks.

Tacoma South Domestic Intermodal Facility Opening
In 2022, BNSF, in partnership with the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), opened a new intermodal rail facility at the Port of Tacoma in Washington. The Tacoma South facility plays a key part in a joint initiative between BNSF and our intermodal motor carrier partner J.B. Hunt. In August, we launched a direct container-only joint service with J.B. Hunt between the Tacoma South facility and Chicago. The new service meets domestic intermodal customers’ capacity demands, provides greater network and facility efficiency for BNSF and increases container capacity and chassis availability for J.B. Hunt.

Barstow International Gateway Planning
In 2022, BNSF unveiled plans to invest more than $1.5 billion to construct a first-of-its-kind-in-North America rail facility in Southern California: the Barstow International Gateway (BIG). BIG will be big, approximately 4,500 acres. BNSF is currently in the process of acquiring property on the west side of Barstow for the facility. The vision for the facility is also on the grand scale. It will be a uniquely integrated operation, consisting of a rail yard, intermodal facility and warehouses for transloading freight from international containers to domestic containers. BIG will allow, for the first time, the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to trains headed to BNSF’s mainline. BIG has the potential to significantly improve network fluidity and efficiency, lower carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs.

Read more about the Barstow International Gateway

Cicero Parking

Extended Intermodal Service

To accommodate the continuing growth in demand for direct-rail intermodal service connecting Southern California with the Midwest, BNSF launched extended service options between Los Angeles and St. Louis in 2022. Launched in March, the new domestic, container-only service is offered five days a week for eastbound and three days a week for westbound freight.