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77-573: The Terminal Railroad Association is owned by BNSF Railway , Canadian National Railway ( Illinois Central Railroad until 1999), CSX Transportation , Norfolk Southern Railway , and Union Pacific Railroad . All own one-seventh of the railroad except UP, which owns three-sevenths. The Terminal Railroad also connects with the Canadian Pacific Kansas City . The TRRA owns and operates the MacArthur and Merchants bridges,

154-478: A $ 1.5 billion state of the art master planned rail facility in Southern California, the first such facility developed by a Class I railroad . The Barstow International Gateway, encompassing approximately 4,500 acres (1,800 ha, 7.0 sq mi), an integrated rail facility, will be located on the west side of Barstow, California . This new facility, when built, will enable more efficient rail operations from

231-695: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

308-515: A BN hub where it could interchange with SP (which had rights on BN dating from 1990 ). The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) approved the BNSF merger on July 20, 1995 (with final approval on August 23), less than a month before UP announced on August 3 that it would acquire SP. Parents Burlington Northern Inc. and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation were acquired on September 22, 1995, by the new Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation . The merger of

385-600: A few short sections of trackage rights over BNSF, mainly connecting the SP at Chemult to the UP at Bend, Oregon , and connecting the SP at Mojave, California with existing UP rights on ATSF at Barstow, California . On April 18, 1996, UP, BNSF, and the Chemical Manufacturers Association entered into an agreement giving BNSF rights over the UP line between Houston and East St. Louis , paralleling

462-464: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

539-608: A number of accidents and incidents have occurred on the railway since its inception. As one of the leading supporters of the Operation Lifesaver program to promote safety at railway crossings and rights-of-way, the BNSF Railway, in 2000, established a grade-crossing closure program. This program, in which BNSF works with communities and landowners to identify unnecessary or redundant crossings, has helped close more than 2,900 of BNSF's railway crossings throughout

616-652: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

693-795: A rail yard on the Illinois property. In 1870, the ferry began porting rail cars across the river one car at a time until the 1874 completion of the Eads Bridge . When the Terminal Railroad was incorporated in 1889, railroads owned most of the Wiggins Ferry property. In 1902 when the Rock Island Line joined the Terminal Railroad, the ownership of the Wiggins Illinois property was complete. The formation of

770-645: A reduced plan, whereby SP acquired trackage rights on ATSF for intermodal and automotive traffic to Chicago, and other trackage rights on ATSF in Kansas , south to Texas, and between Colorado and Texas. In exchange, SP assigned BNSF trackage rights over the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad between El Paso and Topeka and haulage rights to the Mexican border at Eagle Pass, Texas . Regional Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway also obtained trackage rights over BN from Peoria to Galesburg, Illinois ,

847-585: A small amount of track in Canada, including an approximate 30-mile (48 km) section that runs from the U.S.–Canada border to Vancouver, British Columbia , some tracks and a yard in Winnipeg, Manitoba , approximately 70 miles (110 km) of joint track with the Canadian National Railway , which runs south to the U.S. border at Emerson, Manitoba , and less than a kilometer of trackage at

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924-628: A subset of the mechanical division, operates two maintenance-of-way work equipment shops, responsible for performing repairs and preventive maintenance to BNSF's track and equipment, in Brainerd, Minnesota and Galesburg, Illinois . The system mechanical division also operates the Western Fruit Express Company's refrigerated car repair shop in Spokane, Washington . On October 1, 2022, BNSF Railway announced plans to construct

1001-610: A total of 33 intermodal hubs and 23 automotive distribution facilities. The BNSF mechanical division operates 13 locomotive maintenance facilities that perform preventive maintenance, repairs and servicing of equipment. The largest of these facilities are located in Alliance, Nebraska and Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kansas . The mechanical division also controls 46 additional facilities responsible for car maintenance and daily running repairs. The BNSF system mechanical division,

1078-612: Is the principal operating subsidiary of parent company Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas , the railroad's parent company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway , Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska . The current CEO is Kathryn Farmer . According to corporate press releases, the BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal freight in North America. It also hauls bulk cargo , including coal . The creation of BNSF started with

1155-559: The Amtrak Cascades , California Zephyr , Carl Sandburg , Coast Starlight , Empire Builder , Heartland Flyer , Illinois Zephyr , Lincoln Service , Pacific Surfliner , San Joaquin , Southwest Chief , Sunset Limited , and Texas Eagle . After the 2015 Oxnard train derailment , BNSF loaned 40 of their AC4400CWs to Metrolink while their Rotem cab cars received upgrades. These 40 units were converted to PTC. The locomotives have since been returned after

1232-740: The Aurora Branch Railroad in Illinois and the Pacific Railroad of Missouri were formed by a group of millers who were granted a charter to build a 12-mile railroad that connected Aurora with the Galena & Chicago Union Rail Road. The Aurora Branch eventually grew into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), a major component of successor Burlington Northern . Part of the Pacific Railroad became

1309-883: The BNSF Railway Line for Metra in Chicago and the Sounder in the Puget Sound Region — using BNSF-supplied crews in addition to running over its rails. The company's network additionally hosts other commuter trains , including: Metrolink in Southern California , and the Northstar Line in Minneapolis . The line used by New Mexico Rail Runner Express was sold to the state of New Mexico, but BNSF retained all freight rights on

1386-532: The Houston area: west over UP to San Antonio , with a branch to Waco , and continuing over SP to Eagle Pass (replacing the haulage rights they had just obtained); south over UP to Brownsville ; east over SP to New Orleans (including the purchase of this line east of Lake Charles ); and northeast over SP to Memphis with a branch on UP to Little Rock . Ownership of a short connection between Waxahachie and Dallas also went from UP to BNSF. UP, in return, got

1463-697: The Midwest on former BN lines. Depending on where the markets are, this grain may move in any direction in unit trains or wait in silos for demand to rise. Most commonly, grain may move west on the Northern Transcon to the Pacific Northwest and its export terminals, or south to ports in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico . The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 's main contribution to BNSF

1540-621: The Northern Pacific Railway 's main line across Washington , in 1984, in favor of the ex- Great Northern Railway 's Stevens Pass . BN never abandoned the line and began rehabilitating it in early 1996, and the route reopened in early December, relieving the crowded Stevens Pass. The ex-ATSF main line, now known as the Southern Transcon , has also seen steady work to add tracks, giving BNSF more capacity on this major intermodal route. On December 20, 1999, BNSF and

1617-632: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered BNSF to pay over $ 526,000 to workers who had been terminated in 2010 and 2011 after revealing workplace injuries at the terminal in Havre, Montana , which is in contravention of provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act protecting whistleblowers. In August 2016, a "huge number" of used hypodermic drug needles were found along a BNSF railroad bridge in between

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1694-813: The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach to trains for transport through the Alameda Corridor onto the BNSF mainline to the new facility, and then move across the nation on the eastbound BNSF route network. In June 2024, BNSF Railway announced plans to develop the Surprise Intermodal/Logistics Center , a regional rail-served facility near Phoenix, Arizona . The planned site is located in northwest Maricopa County and will cover 4,321 acres (1,749 ha) of land. The facility consists of three distinct, interrelated components: Large freight car hump yards are located throughout

1771-615: The San Francisco Bay Area , with an alternate route through the Feather River Canyon along UP. The ATSF trackage in California's Central Valley was linked to BN's line into Oregon , through trackage rights over UP between Stockton and Keddie and acquisition of UP's section of the "Inside Gateway" to the beginning of BN trackage at Bieber . In Texas, BNSF received rights in several directions from

1848-565: The St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco). The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) was chartered in 1859. It built one of the first transcontinental railroads in North America, linking Chicago and Southern California ; major branches led to Texas , Denver , and San Francisco . The Interstate Commerce Commission denied a proposed merger with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in

1925-532: The Surface Transportation Board expressed concern and surprise about the timing, since the merger that produced BNSF had been the only one in the 1990s that did not cause severe deterioration in service. On March 17, 2000, the STB imposed a 15-month moratorium on mergers involving any two Class I railroads , citing widespread opposition not only to the merger but its effects, likely starting

2002-599: The TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns the equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses

2079-552: The University Park and St. Johns neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon that has become an encampment for homeless individuals. According to a conductor quoted by The Oregonian "Pretty much see people down there at all hours of the night. We report them but nobody does anything." Reporting mark A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects

2156-447: The low-sulfur coal of Wyoming 's Powder River Basin . The city of Burlington, Iowa is the namesake of Burlington in each of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , Burlington Northern Railroad , and BNSF. On June 30, 1994, BN and ATSF announced plans to merge. They were the largest and smallest (by track mileage) of the "Super Seven", the seven largest of the then-twelve U.S. Class I railroads . The long-rumored announcement

2233-512: The 1970s through construction of the Powder River Basin Joint Line with Union Pacific Railroad predecessor Chicago and North Western Transportation Company . Coal goes north in unit trains on the three-to-four-track Joint Line to Gillette or south to Orin , where older BN lines and other railroads take it in all directions to coal-burning power plants . BNSF serves over 1,500 grain elevators , located mostly in

2310-535: The 1980s. The Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) was created in 1970 through the consolidation of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , the Great Northern Railway , the Northern Pacific Railway and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway . It absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco) in 1980. Its main lines included Chicago- Seattle with branches to Texas (ex-Burlington) and Birmingham, Alabama (ex-Frisco), and access to

2387-513: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

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2464-568: The AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with the letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example,

2541-629: The BNSF system. Location of some intermodal yards: The BNSF system is divided into 13 divisions grouped into three regions. Each division includes numerous subdivisions, normally comprising a single main line and branches. A fourteenth division, Colorado, has been consolidated with the Powder River Division, except for the Casper and Cody Subdivisions, which were transferred to the Montana Division. BNSF directly operates

2618-832: The Houston-Memphis SP line, and allowing BNSF to participate in the UP's plan for directional running , in which each line would serve through trains in only one direction. The Surface Transportation Board , successor to the ICC, approved the UP-SP merger on July 3, and UP control of SP took effect on September 11, 1996. BNSF trackage rights operations began on the Central Corridor on October 10, and soon thereafter on other lines. BNSF continued projects started by its predecessors, most notably BN's work on reopening Stampede Pass . BN had closed Stampede Pass,

2695-724: The Mississippi River persuaded several industries to set up shop in Illinois rather than Missouri. The steelmaking town of Granite City, Illinois , was founded in 1896 to avoid the tariffs. In 1989, the TRRA traded the Eads Bridge to the City of St. Louis in exchange for the MacArthur Bridge. The TRRA operates the following lines: For four years beginning in 2001, TRRA received the Gold E. H. Harriman Award for safety in

2772-719: The Red River Division, and the former Springfield and Nebraska divisions were combined into the Heartland Division, in the spring of 2016. Not including second, third and fourth main-line trackage, yard trackage, and siding trackage, BNSF directly owns and operates over 24,000 miles (39,000 km) of track. When these additional tracks are counted, the length of track which the railway directly controls rises to more than 50,000 miles (80,000 km). Additionally, BNSF Railway has gained trackage rights on more than 8,000 miles (13,000 km) of track throughout

2849-769: The Southern Transcon, has been almost completely double-tracked, and triple-tracking has begun in areas such as Cajon Pass . BNSF transports Boeing 737 fuselages from the Wichita, Kansas plant to Renton, Washington. The BNSF Railway directly owns and operates track in 28 U.S. states : Alabama , Arizona , Arkansas , California , Colorado , Idaho , Illinois , Iowa , Kansas , Louisiana , Minnesota , Mississippi , Missouri , Montana , Nebraska , Nevada , New Mexico , North Dakota , Oklahoma , Oregon , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , Utah , Washington , Wisconsin , and Wyoming . The railway also operates

2926-528: The Switching and Terminal railroad class. In 2015, 2017, and 2021 the TRRA was awarded American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association's Presidential Award for safety (most man hours of injury free operation). In 2020 the TRRA received the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association's Veteran Engagement Award. BNSF Railway BNSF Railway ( reporting mark BNSF ) is

3003-494: The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis grew out of an agreement orchestrated by Jay Gould in 1889 between predecessor entities of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and six proprietary railroads. Those original railroads were: The Association built Union Station , opening it in 1894. The station would close in 1978 when Amtrak moved to a temporary facility several hundred yards to

3080-592: The United States and Canada. These rights allow the BNSF to operate its own trains with its own crews on competing railroads' main tracks. BNSF locomotives also occasionally show up on competitors' tracks throughout the United States and Canada by way of leases, mileage equalizations, and other contractual arrangements. BNSF operates various facilities all over the United States, plus a yard in Winnipeg, to support its transportation system. Facilities operated by

3157-465: The United States. Due to the program, BNSF has been the industry leader in lowering the number of grade-crossing collisions. BNSF contracts with News Link , a small business in Lincoln, Nebraska , to publish employee newsletters focused on safety for some of the railroad's divisions and shops. These newsletters vary in length from four to 28 pages, published ranging from monthly to quarterly. In 2014,

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3234-682: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

3311-416: The West. UP and BNSF announced in late September 1995 that, in exchange for BNSF not opposing the merger, it would obtain ownership of 335 miles (539 km) of line and about 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of trackage rights to reach these "two-to-one" shippers. Significant additions included rights over SP's Central Corridor from Denver via the Moffat Tunnel and Salt Lake City , and over Donner Pass , to

3388-466: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

3465-431: The assumption of $ 10 billion in Burlington Northern debt, brings the total value to $ 44 billion. Consummated February 12, 2010, it is the largest acquisition in Berkshire Hathaway's history. The deal was structured so that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation would merge with and into R Acquisition Company, LLC, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The deal closed on February 12, 2010, and at

3542-553: The border in Northgate, Saskatchewan . For administrative purposes, BNSF is divided into two regions and ten operating divisions. The North Region includes the Montana, Northwest, Twin Cities, Heartland and Powder River divisions. The South Region includes the Red River, California, Chicago, Kansas and Southwest divisions. Each division is further divided into subdivisions, which represent segments of track ranging from 300-mile (480 km) mainlines to 10-mile (16 km) branch-lines. The former Texas and Gulf divisions were combined into

3619-417: The cab cars went back into service. Although it does not have a steam program like the Union Pacific, the BNSF has allowed for the Southern Pacific 4449 , St. Louis–San Francisco 1522 , Santa Fe 3751 , Santa Fe 2926 , Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700 and Milwaukee Road 261 steam locomotives to operate excursions over their rails. BNSF has received E.H. Harriman Award for safety multiple times. But

3696-426: The east. In its early years, the Association was at odds with the St. Louis Merchants Exchange . The Exchange built the Eads Bridge but lost control to the Terminal Railroad. The Exchange then built the Merchants Bridge to keep the Terminal Railroad from having a monopoly. The Exchange then lost control of that bridge also to the Terminal Railroad. The railroad's practice of charging a tariff to coal trains crossing

3773-580: The final round of mergers into two big systems. BNSF and CN immediately turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals , which on July 14 ruled that the STB's right to regulate mergers allowed a moratorium, and the two railroads called off the merger. The STB released its final rules on June 11, 2001, requiring any new application to merge two Class I railroads, with the exception of smaller Kansas City Southern Railway , to demonstrate that competition would be preserved and address effects of defensive moves by other carriers. No further Class I mergers would take place until

3850-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

3927-423: The formation of a holding company on September 22, 1995. This new holding company purchased the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (often called the "Santa Fe") and Burlington Northern Railroad , and formally merged the railways into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996. On January 24, 2005, the railroad's name was officially changed to BNSF Railway Company using

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4004-612: The former would buy the latter, but this plan was called off on October 25. The Union Pacific Railroad (UP), another major Western system, started a bidding war with BN for control of the SF on October 5. The UP gave up on January 31, 1995, paving the way for the BN-ATSF merger. Subsequently, the UP acquired the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (SP) in 1996, and Eastern U.S. systems CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway split Conrail in 1999. On February 7, 1995, BN and ATSF heads Gerald Grinstein and Robert D. Krebs announced that shareholders had approved

4081-458: The initials of its original name. Warren Buffett 's Berkshire Hathaway acquired BNSF Railway in February 2010, obtaining all of its shares and taking the company private. BNSF and its chief competitor, the Union Pacific Railroad , have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western , Midwestern and Southern United States and share trackage rights over thousands of miles of track. BNSF's history dates to 1849, when

4158-473: The largest classification yard in the St. Louis region. The switching yard consists of 80 inbound, outbound, and holding tracks with a capacity of 2,200 cars. The company is planning to expand Madison Yard to hold another 1,500 railcars, for a yard total of 4,000. The railroad operates 30 locomotives to move cars around the yard, deliver cars to local industries, and ready trains for departure. The railroad's predecessor companies in St. Louis date to 1797, when

4235-486: The largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads , BNSF has 36,000 employees, 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles (272 million kilometers) in 2010, more than any other North American railroad. The BNSF Railway Company

4312-443: The line and operates freight trains as needed. Metra's cars that were originally purchased by BNSF predecessor Chicago Burlington & Quincy have letterboards above the doors. In about 2011, about 15 of the remaining cars had the original "BURLINGTON" lettering restored, while the rest now read "BNSF RAILWAY". Other Metra cars assigned to BNSF have the current BNSF "swoosh" logo next to the door. Many Amtrak routes use BNSF rails:

4389-446: The merger between Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific in April 2023, creating the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway . The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation was incorporated in 1993 to facilitate the merger of Burlington Northern, Incorporated , parent of the Burlington Northern Railroad , and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation , which owned the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe). The corporate merger

4466-420: The merger. UP was satisfied with a single segment of trackage rights from Abilene, Kansas , to Superior, Nebraska , which BN and ATSF had both served. KCS gained haulage rights to several Midwest locations, including Omaha , East St. Louis , and Memphis , in exchange for BNSF getting similar access to New Orleans . SP, initially requesting far-reaching trackage rights throughout the West, soon agreed to

4543-409: The name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equipment, similar to IATA airline designators . In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by

4620-429: The operating companies was held up by issues with unions ; ATSF merged on December 31, 1996, into BN, which was renamed the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company. Union Pacific's merger with Southern Pacific further enlarged the combined BNSF network. Unlike BN and ATSF, UP and SP had significant overlap, where the end of competition between the two risked creating a monopoly for freight carriage in much of

4697-444: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

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4774-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

4851-399: The plan, which would save overhead costs and combine BN's coal and ATSF's intermodal strengths. Although the two systems complemented each other with little overlap, in contrast to the Santa Fe-Southern Pacific merger, which failed because it would have eliminated competition in many areas of the Southwest , BN and ATSF came to agreements with most other Class Is to keep them from opposing

4928-406: The railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of

5005-502: The railway include yards and terminals throughout its rail network, system locomotive shops to perform locomotive service and maintenance, a centralized operations center for train dispatching and network operations monitoring in Fort Worth , and regional dispatching centers. BNSF Railway also operates numerous transfer facilities throughout the western United States to facilitate the transfer of intermodal containers , trailers, and other freight traffic. BNSF Railway has direct control over

5082-444: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

5159-562: The recently privatized Canadian National Railway announced plans to combine as subsidiaries of a new holding company , North American Railways, which would control about 50,000 miles (80,000 km) of railroad. With CN's lines primarily in Canada and, through subsidiary Illinois Central Railroad , on a north–south corridor near BNSF's eastern edge, the two systems had little overlap. The combination would have benefited both companies by expanding available cash for capacity improvements and allowing for longer single-system movements. Shippers and

5236-609: The reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

5313-400: The same time, the now merged company changed its name to Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. It remains an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. In January 2022, BNSF agreed to purchase Montana Rail Link , a private company, for $ 2 billion, through an "early lease termination". The return to BNSF control required the approval of the Surface Transportation Board , which

5390-494: The town was still part of Spanish Upper Louisiana . James Piggott was granted a license to operate a ferry between St. Louis and Illinoistown (now East St. Louis, Illinois ). In 1819, Piggott's heirs sold the ferry to Samuel Wiggins, who operated the service with eight horses until a steam-powered ferry took over in 1828. In 1832, Wiggins sold the Wiggins Ferry Service and 800 acres (3.2 km) of land in East St. Louis, including Bloody Island , to new owners, who began developing

5467-412: The two Mississippi River railroad crossings in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In 2022, the TRRA completed a $ 222 million rebuild of the 1889 Merchants Bridge. In the same year, the TRRA began a $ 57.3 million renovation of the MacArthur Bridge that includes replacing the 1912 main span girders and rebuilding the Broadway truss in downtown St. Louis. The Association also owns and operates Madison Yard,

5544-833: Was approved on March 8, 2023. The railroad had over 900 miles (1,400 km) of track, and served 100 stations. The main classification yard was in Laurel, Montana, with smaller yards in Missoula, Billings, Bozeman and Helena. BNSF took over MRL operations on January 1, 2024. This absorbed the MRL into BNSF, integrating MRL operations, technology and personnel. All 1,200 employees were offered employment with BNSF. With BNSF's large system, it hauls many different commodities, most notably coal and grain , as well as intermodal freight . Predecessor Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) entered Wyoming 's low-sulfur coal -rich Powder River Basin in

5621-454: Was consummated on September 22, 1995, at which point shareholders of the previous companies became shareholders of BNSF and the two companies became wholly owned subsidiaries of BNSF. In December 1996, the two holding companies and two railroads were formally merged, and in January 1998 the remaining intermediate holding company was folded into the railroad. Robert Krebs of Santa Fe Pacific

5698-417: Was delayed by a disagreement over the disposition of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation, a gold mining subsidiary that ATSF agreed to sell to stockholders. This announcement began the next wave of mergers, as the "Super Seven" were merged down to four in the next five years. The Illinois Central Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS), two of the five "small" Class Is, announced on July 19 that

5775-580: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

5852-447: Was president of BNSF from the merger until 1999, chief executive from the merger until 2000, and chairman from 1997 until 2002. He was succeeded in all three positions by Matthew K. Rose . On November 3, 2009, Berkshire Hathaway made a $ 26 billion offer to buy the remaining 77.4% of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation it did not already own, valuing the purchase at $ 34 billion. The deal, including Berkshire's previous investment and

5929-574: Was the Southern Transcon , a fast intermodal corridor connecting Southern California and Chicago . Most traffic is either trailers of trucking companies such as intermodal partner J. B. Hunt , or containers from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles . The latter begins its trip on the triple-track Alameda Corridor , shared with the Union Pacific Railroad , and then follows BNSF rails from downtown Los Angeles . Its route,

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