the employee magazine of team bnsf fall 2010

T h e e m P l o y e e m A g A z I n e o f T e A m B n S f f A l l 2 010

Commuter operations: Getting riders on rail, off roads

Every weekday, BNSF helps move more than 100,000 people in and around Chicago,

Seattle, Los Angeles and, most recently, Minneapolis. Collectively, these four

passenger systems add about 175 commuter trains a day on the BNSF network.

Page 2

2010: Glacier National Park celebrates 100 years

BNSF employees can be proud of their heritage and association with the National Park System’s Glacier

National Park, the “Crown of the Continent,” which attracts more than

2 million visitors each year.4

Powder River Division lays a foundation for safety

Powder River Division employees have reduced overall injuries this year by 15 percent and, as of October, they led all divisions with the lowest injury-frequency ratio. They’ve built

a strong safety foundation by focusing on relationships, communication and safety education. Page 10

BNSF closes No. 5,000 BNSF recently marked a major milestone – both for the railroad and nationally – when the company closed the 5,000th grade crossing at Sioux Falls, S.D. BNSF began aggressively closing grade crossings in 2000. Over that same period, highway-rail crossing incidents have been

reduced by 50 percent. Page 12

Every weekday, BNSF helps move more than 100,000 people in and around four major metropolitan areas: Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and, most recently, Minneapolis. Collectively, these four passenger systems add about 175 commuter trains a day on the BNSF network, not including Amtrak intercity corridor and long-distance passenger service.

Each commuter system requires a tightly managed operation to ensure consistency so that day in and day out the service can be repeated. In addition, the plan must allow for recovery in the event of a service interruption.

“BNSF and the commuter systems we partner with provide world-class service,” says DJ Mitchell, assistant vice president, Passenger Operations. “We have to. When you are moving people, the safe and precise execution of the service plan is the expectation. With a commuter train, if you’re five minutes past the scheduled arrival time, you’re late.”

VP, Corporate RelationsJohn Ambler

general Director, Internal CommunicationsKristen Rabe

editorSusan Green

Contributing PhotographersMike Bjork, Scott Brons, Steve Crise, Dallas Fuller, David Lustig, Newslink, Paul Parisot, Beau Price, Clarke Sutphin and David Vickers

Got a StoRy iDEa? Send story ideas to BNSF Railway Editor, via Outlook to: Communications, Corporate, or send by Internet to: [email protected] or mail to:BNSF Corporate RelationsP.O. Box 961057Fort Worth, Texas 76161-0057

aDDRESS ChaNGES employees: To review your address, call company line 676-9001 or dial 1-800-274-6739 or review and change your address online via BNSF‘s Intranet site at employee.bnsf.com. Go to the Employee tab, click on Life Events, Personal Changes, then Change of Address. Or you may complete and return a Personal Information Change Form (#12796) to the administrative office; mail it to Human Resources Information Systems, P.O. Box 961055, Fort Worth, Texas 76161-0055; or fax it to 817-352-7109.

Retirees: Send address changes and requests to receive Railway after you retire to BNSF Corporate Relations, P.O. Box 961057, Fort Worth, Texas 76161-0057. Please include your former employee ID number.

our vision is to realize the

tremendous potential of BNSF

Railway Company by providing

transportation services

that consistently meet our

customers’ expectations.

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oN thE CoVERA Sound Transit train pulls into Seattle’s King Street Station. Photo by Mike Bjork.

Commuter operations: Getting riders on rail, off roads

More than 60,000 people each day, Monday through Friday, ride the BNSF-operated segment of Metra, one of four major commuter systems on the BNSF network.

Watch the Joint operations Update 2010!In this edition of Railway, we are enclosing BNSF’s 2010 Joint Operations Update. Hosted by Transportation Vice President Greg Fox, Engineering Vice President Dave Freeman and Mechanical Vice President Chris Roberts, this year’s update celebrates BNSF’s successes so far in 2010 and reviews the challenges ahead.

Topics include the impact of the economy, safety and Best Way initiatives. Employee achievements and quotes from across the network are featured throughout the video.

Left to right: Chris Roberts, Greg Fox and Dave Freeman are featured in this year’s Joint Operations Update.

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“People are creatures of habit. They take the same train, they go to the same car, and they often expect to get what they consider their ‘assigned’ seat,” says Jim Guseman, manager, Training and Community Safety, Passenger Operations, for BNSF in Aurora, Ill.

Commuters also expect the locomotive engineer to stop the train at the exact same spot on the platform where they wait. They anticipate that the cars are clean and at the right temperature. They want to be informed and treated respectfully. In addition, if they have a special need, such as a disability, or if they are a first-time rider, senior or parent with children, they anticipate help.

“Other than reserve seats for riders, our employees can do it all. They are extremely competent, capable and professional,” says Guseman. “The Passenger Operations team is a committed group of professionals.”

The Ambassadors Program training that Guseman administers teaches the core elements of customer service, beginning with first impressions. To deal with the public, including the occasional disgruntled passenger, the BNSF conductors and locomotive engineers who crew Metra, Sounder and Northstar are trained to exhibit the highest level of customer service. (Metrolink crews its own trains.) With up to 140 riders per car and an average of eight cars per train, that’s a lot of people-pleasing.

“How we present ourselves – including our appearance, our verbal style and our body language – needs to instill confidence and professionalism,” says Guseman, noting that the rules for the crews are more stringent than those for airline pilots.

Communication – both how the crews deliver and receive information – is another element of the program. Skills such as tone of voice and content seem simple, but a conductor must also clearly and consistently communicate that doors are closing, which station stop is next or why a train is being delayed – or there can be consequences.

That’s where the “May I have your

attention, please?” line is so important in making announcements.

“Keeping passengers informed is key,” says Guseman. “The overwhelming majority of people react well when they are told what’s going on.”

Dealing with complaints – or opportunities – is another skill. Complaints are usually about trains being late, but they can run the gamut, from overcrowded cars, to stuck doors, to sticky floors. Most can be easily resolved, but sometimes issues evolve into what Guseman characterizes as “difficult situations,” the ones that test employees’ mettle: the sports fan that has had too much to drink at the game, severe weather that leads to overcrowded trains or a grade-crossing incident causing delays.

“Here in Chicago, where 65,000 people daily take a train, you know there will be at least one complaint a day, but through the professionalism of our crews, most complaints are resolved between the passenger and the crew member,” says Guseman, who agrees that dealing with the public takes a special person.

Employees must always be approachable and have empathy, so training also teaches what it’s like to be a person with a disability. In one exercise, one person on a team is blindfolded while the other is the guide. A similar exercise uses a wheelchair, giving both participants a chance to be on the receiving and giving end of a disability.

Training also helps employees recognize the stress triggers in both themselves and passengers. The most stressful situation is one that commuter rail employees plan for but pray they never have to experience: a terrorist attack.

“We have a very progressive management team that recognized long before 9/11 that we needed emergency response training that included acts of terrorism,” says Guseman, noting that BNSF was the first railroad in the U.S. to conduct bomb awareness training for its passenger rail employees.

Recently Guseman and others from the Passenger Operations team benchmarked other commuter lines across the country and compared them with BNSF’s passenger security and safety plans. “In many cases, we left our plans with them because ours were so good,” he says.

But it’s the riders’ opinions of BNSF commuter service that motivate Guseman to instill safe, professional and courteous service into BNSF’s commuter operations.

“Living in Chicago, people often mention to me that they know when they are on the BNSF line of Metra. This makes me proud, and I think it’s part of my job to help others working in commuter service to feel the same way,” he says.

May I have your attention, please?When rail commuters step on board, they have one thing – make that two – on their mind. they want to get where they want to go on time and safely. and they want “their” seat.

Continued on page 4

BNSF’s Commuter Rail PrinciplesWhere commuter service is proposed on a line BNSF intends to continue owning and to be jointly used for commuter and freight use, the following principles apply:

• Any commuter operation cannot degrade BNSF’s freight service, or negatively affect BNSF’s freight cus-tomers or BNSF’s ability to provide them with service.

• BNSF must be compensated for any and all costs incurred in providing commuter service and must make a reasonable return for providing the service.

• Capital investments necessary for commuter service are the responsi-bility of the public, including invest-ments for future capacity.

• BNSF will not incur any liability for commuter operations that it would not have but for those operations. These operations are provided by BNSF primarily as a public service.

• Studies of how commuter service might be provided must take into account not only the current freight traffic levels, but also projected freight traffic growth.

• Investments made for commuter projects must not result in BNSF incurring a higher tax burden.

• BNSF must retain operating control of rail facilities used for commuter service. All dispatching, mainte-nance and construction must be done under the control of BNSF.

• Studies must reflect BNSF’s actual operating conditions and cost structures.

• BNSF will limit commuter opera-tions to the commuter schedules initially agreed upon. Future expan-sions will have to undergo the same analysis and provide any required capital improvements.

• Improvements must include grade-crossing protection and intertrack fencing as required to minimize the risk of accidents.

freight still no. 1With an on-time goal of 96 percent or

better, BNSF’s commitment to commuter rail is considerable. But that commitment is carefully balanced with the first of BNSF’s Commuter Rail Principles, which is that commuter operations cannot negatively impact BNSF’s freight customers. (See sidebar.)

“Because building and operating a stand-alone commuter rail system is not practical in most cases, any commuter rail initiative needs to find ways to constructively share in the use of our freight rail infrastructure,” says Mitchell. “That’s why we have the principles to help guide our discussions with public agencies.

Above: Sounder conductor and BNSF employee Pete Gushwa, along with other members of the Passenger Operations team, exhibits a high level of customer service.


Sounder: Celebrating 10 years of successThe northwest corner of BNSF serves the metropolis spanning Seattle, Tacoma and Everett, Wash. Hemmed in by Puget Sound on the west and mountains on the east, the rail and highway traffic flows mostly north-south. The geography has implications especially for highway commuters, who face significant congestion, and contributed to the need for Sounder, the region’s rail commuter service.


On Sept. 18, 2000, the first Sounder commuter train departed Tacoma for Seattle’s King Street Station with 335 passengers operating over BNSF tracks.

Just a decade later, Sounder daily carries approximately 10,000 passengers along 73 miles of rail. Sounder operates through three counties with 26 trains (13 round-trips) every weekday between Everett and Seattle and between Seattle and Tacoma. All of it, except for a short extension south of Tacoma, is on BNSF right-of-way. To accommodate the commuter rail service, BNSF expanded track and signal capacity.

But operating an effective commuter service is more than just reliable track, locomotives and commuter cars. Efficiency also depends on the people who operate the service.

Pete Gushwa, a Sounder conductor and BNSF employee, has been with the railroad for 15 years, the last three working commuter trains. For him, joining the commuter operations team was an obvious choice.

“It was clearly a great place to go to,” says Gushwa. “The management team and the crews are a nice, close-knit

family. Working passenger trains means you know your schedule and you’re home every night.”

But Gushwa says the transition had its challenges.

“It was a little different at first,” he says. “Dealing with the public on a daily basis was new to me. When you work freight trains for the railroad, you usually don’t do a lot of that. I like the guys I work with, and the service I’m helping provide to the public really means something to me.”

John Cox, locomotive engineer, shares similar feelings. With 30 years as an

engineer, the last 10 working Sounder commuter trains, he says he feels content and happy in his work. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” he says.

Cox notes that he, too, faced some surprises transitioning from freight to passenger assignments. “The train-handling skills are quite a bit different than handling freight. You have to pretty much set aside almost everything they taught you in engineer training as far as rapid throttle settings and the way you set the air,” he says, looking out over King Street Station as a Sounder train is spotted for the evening commute.

“When you work freight, even though you need to deliver cargo damage-free, an abrupt move now and then generally won’t make a difference. But you’ll hear about it in passenger service. You’ll get ‘attaboys’ when you do it right and grumbles when you don’t.”

As he prepares to board his train, umbrella in hand – a must for anyone living in the Pacific Northwest – Cox says it’s a pleasure to come to work every day.

“If I had a choice, I’ll always be in passenger service.”

“When we study what needs to be built to accommodate a new commuter service, we consider the impacts on traffic growth well into the future,” says Mitchell.

Careful planning The process of crafting a commuter-trains-

on-freight-lines agreement takes careful planning and close coordination with public agencies.

Commuter train service requests are typically for weekday peaks (mornings and evenings) to and from major urban areas and the suburbs. Sometimes they include special services to accommodate weekend sporting events or concerts. The public agency will also want trains at speeds that are competitive with the next-best option available to their future riders – automobiles.

Passenger Operations, working with Service Design & Performance (SD&P), will look at the request in light of an existing line’s capacity. They will evaluate timetables and analyze dwell time in terminals, run time, speed of train,

Continued from page 3

John Cox has been a locomotive engineer for 30 years, the last 10 working Sounder commuter trains.

BNSF helps connect major cities, regions by railCommuter train service covers a relatively short distance, typically from the suburbs to downtown areas and during peak times, such as rush hour. Then there is intercity train service, not unlike regional airlines, that connects major cities within a state or region, generally covering 500 miles or less. Intercity train service, using BNSF tracks with Amtrak as the service provider, includes these service areas:

• los Angeles to San Diego, Calif. • Portland, ore., to Vancouver, B.C. • oklahoma City to fort Worth

• Quincy, Ill., to Chicago • Bakersfield, Calif., to Port Chicago, Calif.

In addition, Amtrak operates long-distance corridor trains over BNSF on these routes:TRAIn/CoRRIDoR mIleS TRAInS/DAySouthwest Chief/Chicago-Los Angeles 2,238 2California Zephyr/Chicago-Denver 1,037 2Empire Builder/Minneapolis-Seattle 1,786 2Texas Eagle/Temple, Texas-Fort Worth 128 2

Combined, about 64 Amtrak trains operate daily over about 6,500 miles of BNSF host track. Amtrak provides BNSF incentive pay to keep these trains within an agreed service window. Amtrak also pays for a portion of dispatching, police and security, maintenance and other costs associated with these operations. Last year, BNSF had its best recent on-time record with Amtrak, with on-time performance of about 90 percent.

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Metra: BNSF line puts on daily paradesOn the western edge of the Chicago metropolis, the “morning parade” begins every weekday, starting around 5 a.m. But you won’t find any floats or marching bands in this procession – just one commuter train after another for a solid three hours. Then at 4 p.m., there is a command performance in reverse, with a total of 106 trains by day’s end.


More than 60,000 people each day, Monday through Friday, ride the BNSF-operated segment of Metra, which oversees northeast Illinois’ extensive commuter rail system. The BNSF lineup begins in the far western suburbs and continues to the eastern Union Station terminus, with 26 station stops in between.

Weekends have their show, too, but on a smaller scale, and not counting the extra trains for special events like Chicago Bears games, the Jazz Festival or Taste of Chicago – all of which draw thousands more.

That’s a lot of action on a line less than 40 miles long. While it may be short on distance, the history of the Aurora, Ill., to downtown Chicago line is extensive as it is the oldest of the four commuter operations on BNSF.

“The first Chicago, Burlington & Quincy passenger train (a BNSF predecessor) operated on the current alignment in May 1864,” explains Pat Casler, director, Suburban Services. “By the 1970s, when passenger fares were insufficient to cover operating and capital costs, then-Burlington Northern entered into a purchase of service agreement with Metra, which provided operating subsidies and a share of capital costs. Today’s service carries more than 20 percent of Metra’s ridership.”

This BNSF line is also the busiest on Metra, which has services on 11 different rail lines in a six-county area.

To accommodate the daily rush, BNSF schedules the departures and arrivals of its freight trains to not interfere with commuter trains.

“Our job is to keep the two out of each

other’s way and to keep both freight and commuter trains on time,” says Terminal Superintendent Tim Merriweather, who is responsible for both Cicero, Ill., freight terminal operations and the Metra operations.

Supported by two terminal managers, three trainmasters and about 100 Transportation employees who crew the commuter trains, Merriweather admits his is not a job for everyone.

“It can keep me up at night,” he says of the day-to-day challenge of safely operating more than 100 commuter trains across a forest of signals and more than two dozen at-grade crossings. And that’s not counting the freight traffic or the Amtrak service on this double-, triple- and in places quadruple-tracked line into Chicago, considered the nation’s rail capital.

Harsh winters with heavy snowfall can add to the challenges. But despite the complexities, the Suburban Operations team is one of the safest. In 2009, they won a Harriman silver medal for outstanding employee safety record and a certificate of commendation for longer-term consistency and improvement in safety performance.

“We have a lot of employees who have been here awhile and know how to run this service and do it safely,” says Merriweather. “We take a lot of pride in our work, and safety is apparent, with employees looking out for their peers and the riders.”

Safe and courteous service actually begins with the BNSF clerks and ticket agents who staff the stations between Aurora and downtown. “These employees are often the first contact

and the friendly face of BNSF in the communities along our line,” says Casler.

Also looking out for the Metra passengers are the coach cleaners, carmen, machinists, electricians and others in Mechanical charged with the maintenance and upkeep of the 33 locomotives and 225 coach cars, most of which are owned by Metra.

The Chicago coach cleaners have a unique position at BNSF. They are responsible for making sure the cars meet commuters’ expectations: picked up, swept and wiped down, with seats flipped in the right direction. Electricians’ jobs include replacing light bulbs, keeping toilets working and fixing a variety of other issues in the passenger areas. Machinists who work on the cab-style locomotives follow guidelines similar to their freight counterparts, except that regulations vary somewhat and in some cases require more scrutiny.

“If one of our locomotives breaks down during the ‘parade,’ it can throw off the whole schedule,” says Dave Moreno, superintendent, Suburban Mechanical. “If we get a call that there is a problem, we have a response team that reacts within minutes.”

From the 14th Street Shop, the locomotive team and the car team also take great pride in their work and put safety first.

Explains Moreno: “They are a good, hard-working group of people. When I ask them why they are so vigilant about their work, they say it’s because they play a role in moving people. They have to do it right.”

traffic patterns, conditions of track, number of sidings and other factors. There’s also extensive computer analysis and modeling and thorough discussion. People in the field and dispatchers who know the territory will provide input on how additional trains will affect their operations.

Gary Agnew, general director, Resource Planning, SD&P, and his team handle the research.

“When we do analysis for passenger trains, we want to make sure we don’t handcuff growth for BNSF. There is only so much room to add infrastructure, and with real estate at a premium in metropolitan areas, we want to be sure we don’t do anything that will limit future freight traffic options,” Agnew says. “At the

same time, we have to be very realistic about our assumptions.”

The team looks at what physical plant additions (track, crossing gates and signals) are needed to mitigate the commuter train additions. Positive train control (PTC), to be installed on many routes where commuter and passenger traffic operates, is also a factor because of the related signal upgrade work. (See related story on page 8.)

With a price tag and operating plan in hand, BNSF’s Law Department, supported by Mitchell and his team, go back to the public agency to negotiate an agreement. Factors discussed include needed capacity, freight and passenger

Commuter rail translates into fewer emissions coming from cars and provides a safe, efficient option that frees riders from the hassles of the road.

Continued on page 6


Northstar operates 12 weekday commuter trains, stopping at six stations over approximately 38 miles of track from Big Lake, Minn., to Minneapolis and connecting with Hiawatha Light Rail at Target Field. Limited weekend service is also provided.

BNSF’s Jan Ruby, suburban terminal manager, says the commuter service’s schedule dovetails with BNSF freight and Amtrak passenger service, which operate over the same track. The commuter service runs during early morning and evening hours, leaving the track fully available for Amtrak and freight the rest of the day. On the weekends, and sometimes during the week, trains also run to Target Field for special events including Minnesota Twins or Minnesota Vikings games.

The service carried its first official load of passengers on Nov. 16, 2009. But local and state government officials developed and refined service plans for a decade before the final agreements were reached

with BNSF to initiate the service.Craig Rasmussen, division engineer,

Twin Cities Division, says new rail and equipment were installed as part of BNSF’s agreement to crew, dispatch and maintain the service, including the track over which the trains operate.

An estimated 200 BNSF employees – mostly track and signal – contributed to the construction effort, which involved the construction of new track in preparation for the service, new high-speed crossovers and upgrades to the existing signal system along the Staples Subdivision.

On the Midway and Wayzata subdivisions, BNSF upgraded the track and raised the speed, installed new ties and upgraded the bridge decks over the Mississippi River.

“We installed new and, in some cases, larger turnouts, which provide a speed increase for both freight and passenger trains,” Rasmussen says.

With winter approaching, Ruby anticipates the snow and ice will draw more riders to Northstar because area residents commuting on the highway between Big Lake and downtown face up to a two-hour drive in winter weather. On Northstar, the travel time is 49 minutes.

Ruby points out that BNSF has delivered 99.9 percent on-time arrival since the inception of service.

“We’ve been blessed with some very professional railroaders – locomotive engineers, conductors, dispatchers, Signal and Maintenance of Way – who have taken this commuter service to heart and operated with the credo of Safety, Service and Schedule,” says Ruby, noting that the commuter service has operated since the beginning without injury and human-factor incident.

“We may be the youngest of BNSF’s commuter rail services,” Ruby says, “but we intend to be the jewel in BNSF’s crown.”


requirements along with available funding.Terms of the agreements vary, with BNSF

and its employees providing all or a combination of dispatching, track maintenance, mechanical or train operation services. Of the four systems BNSF partners with – Metra (Chicago), Sounder (Seattle), Northstar (Minneapolis) and Metrolink (Los Angeles) – BNSF Transportation employees crew all but the Metrolink trains. In Chicago, BNSF’s Mechanical Department services Metra passenger cars and locomotives, and BNSF clerks staff the passenger train stations.

Cutting cars, emissionsSo why does BNSF subject itself to

complicated studies, lengthy negotiations and the complexities of commuter operations?

“It’s a valued partnership between BNSF and the community, with the benefit of reduced highway congestion,” says Mitchell. “On average, one bi-level commuter railcar can take as many as 120 automobiles off the road. Our commuter operation is sensitive to the interests of the communities we serve, consistent with our company Vision & Values.” To back that up, consider:

• Since the start of Sounder in 2000, BNSF has helped to remove the equivalent of one lane of I-5 highway rush-hour traffic between Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.

• About 46,000 passengers ride during the rush-hour period every day on the Chicago Metra over BNSF lines – equal

With BNSF’s Commuter Principles as a guide, the company can reasonably accommodate commuter rail.

Northstar: Newest star in BNSF commuter opsNorthstar may be the newest commuter service with ties to BNSF, but the operation is smooth and efficient, as if it had been in place for years.

to four lanes of inbound or outbound rush-hour traffic.

• In the Los Angeles Basin, BNSF has been accommodating commuter train growth, from six trains a day to currently 44 trains a day during the week. BNSF achieved a 98.5 percent on-time performance in 2009.

• To address congestion during the rush hour on State Route 10 across the northwest portion of the Minneapolis area, BNSF, working with Northstar Commuter

Development Authority, added daily rush-hour service to the area last year.

Not only do commuter trains translate into fewer emissions coming from cars, they also bring indisputable benefits to rail commuters.

Rail provides a safe, efficient option that frees riders from the hassles of fighting erratic drivers, car trouble, bad weather and traffic jams. Just consider the public service benefits BNSF helps provide commuters in Chicago: During rush hour, it can take two hours by car to go each way

Continued from page 5


A sea of words flows quickly and effortlessly, as dispatchers and others in the Regional Operations Center guide train operations across the ever-changing chessboard that is Southern California railroading.

One of those voices is that of Frank Greaves, a dispatcher on the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. dayshift. His territory is the 70-mile San Bernardino Subdivision from West Riverside to Harbor Junction, just west of the huge Hobart Intermodal Terminal in Los Angeles.

During his shift, Greaves will work 25 to 30 BNSF freight, Amtrak passenger and numerous Metrolink commuter trains. The latter is an increasing number

of movements originating at outlying points and heading to urban centers in the morning. The reverse moves follow each evening, using BNSF right-of-way on the line from downtown Los Angeles to Riverside and San Bernardino.

Add a dozen Amtrak intercity passenger trains moving back and forth between downtown Los Angeles and San Diego – plus long-distance passenger trains – and it quickly becomes clear that Greaves and his fellow dispatchers are working full tilt throughout their shifts.

“The job is to operate trains safely and on time, to get them from point A to point B as quickly as possible,” says Greaves of his responsibility.

Greaves admits it’s challenging to keep his territory moving smoothly. He knows the importance of keeping the commuter and passenger trains safely running on time while also ensuring that BNSF freight trains aren’t backed up waiting for a clear track. He says that it took him five years to truly understand every facet of his job.

“The routine varies every day,” he says. “It’s like playing a game of chess with a different guy every shift. My job is to keep everything fluid.” He also needs to consider maintenance windows as well as periodic service interruptions caused by anything from mechanical breakdowns to severe weather events.

“Construction is another factor,” says Greaves. “The railroad is constantly growing every day with the installation of new signaling in support of positive train control and triple-tracking. It never remains the same.”

While he sits alone in his dispatching pod, Greaves knows he’s part of a much larger team dedicated to keeping the railroad working.

“The Maintenance of Way and Signal teams are excellent at taking charge of situations when they pop up. The support that dispatchers get from them and the rest of the railroad team is incredible. You couldn’t do this job without them,” he says.

Greaves takes great pride in doing his job, one that plays an integral part in keeping freight on the move, and doing it smoothly and safely. It’s satisfying, he says, to do all that and, at the same time, enjoy the huge responsibility that is train dispatching.


from the suburban Naperville, Ill., to downtown Chicago. By train, it takes 32 minutes each way.

“Operating commuter trains is an accommodation to a public need, and we have a history of being a good partner,” says Mitchell, noting that BNSF or its predecessor railroads have been operating passenger rail since the 1860s. “We have proven that, with our Commuter Principles guiding us, we can reasonably accommodate commuter rail.”

‘got it’ factorThen there’s the “got it” factor of commuter

rail, one that is hard to quantify but makes the

partnership work.“Commuter rail riders understand the value of

rail,” says Mitchell. “Because the general public and their government representatives see that rail helps solve their transportation problems, people in communities along our lines are better able to understand how a railroad works – and then work with us when the need arises, like when road crossings must be closed and rebuilt.

“Good things happen when people get a better understanding of the railroad business,” says Mitchell. “And that makes it easier for everyone to do their jobs.”

BNSF clerks and ticket agents who staff most of the Metra stations are often the first contact and the friendly face of BNSF in the communities along our line.

Dispatcher Frank Greaves’ territory is the 70-mile San Bernardino Subdivision. During his shift, he dispatches 25 to 30 BNSF freight, Amtrak passenger and numerous Metrolink commuter trains.

Metrolink: important piece of Southern California transportation chainIn a large single-story building on the outskirts of San Bernardino, Calif., miles from the nearest BNSF tracks, is a large, dimly lit room filled with voices.


The group is tackling multiple projects that will enable PTC technologies – including wayside units, base towers, locomotives and the Network Operations Center in Fort Worth – to communicate to one another and with other railroads, and creating back-up systems for each.

“The Telecommunications team must engineer the communication system, conduct radio acceptance testing and then deploy the system by the end of 2015,” explains Jo-ann Olsovsky, vice president, Technology Services and BNSF’s chief information officer. “It is a large undertaking.”

PtC communicationsThe Rail Safety Improvement Act of

2008 stipulates that railroads’ PTC systems must be “interoperable,” or use common communication standards and processes so all PTC-equipped trains can operate with other railroads’ PTC systems and vice versa.

To accomplish this, BNSF’s PTC system will rely on wireless 220 megahertz (MHz) radio communications, a spectrum that has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission for PTC utilization. Other forms of communication technologies will be used, such as secure WiFi, cellular and GPS, but for very specific applications within the PTC environment.

“A concerted effort by the rail industry is under way to define system requirements, frequency allocation and channel planning, and complete radio development for the new 220 MHz technology,” says Grissum. “We’re anticipating a production radio design by the third quarter of 2011.”

Designing the networkTwo Telecommunications teams are

partnering to design the PTC communications network, both supervised by Mike Lannan, director, Telecommunications.

Team 1: Dedicated to planning efforts. This team has already started:

• Conducting extensive coverage analysis studies

option for locomotive initialization downloads, which are critical to PTC interoperability. Initialization downloads occur at the start of each trip, when important trip information is downloaded to the locomotive’s onboard computer system. Not only does cellular technology reduce installation costs on PTC-designated locomotives, it also reduces BNSF’s reliance on more expensive WiFi networks.

To ensure that BNSF’s 220 MHz radio meets federal requirements, the planning team will use a PTC test lab on the Fort Worth campus to simulate the wayside, base tower and locomotive components of the communication network and troubleshoot potential issues.

Constructing the network After the planning team identifies where

communication coverage is required for 220 MHz, Francis and the implementation team search for potential base tower sites. Once they identify a site, they conduct additional tests and, if appropriate, initiate the permitting process.

After gaining the proper permits, the team oversees base tower construction. Francis anticipates that BNSF will need about 36 new base towers to deploy PTC, with tower heights ranging from 120 to more than 250 feet.

The implementation team will also address communications in 16 of BNSF’s tunnels and ensure that telecommunications components are installed and tested at bungalow sites.

In 2010, the implementation team will oversee delivery and testing of more than 900 kits for PTC-designated subdivisions. By the time that PTC is fully implemented in 2015, the team will have upgraded almost 10,000 waysides to the 220 MHz network.

“I am confident that the Telecommunications team will meet this challenge,” says Olsovsky. “They’re on schedule and will be ready for radio delivery.”

Telecommunications channels positive train control communications terms like “oPaC,” “PtC 220” and “Slot 10” pepper Jim Barrett and Miles Francis’ conversations. Barrett and Francis, both consulting systems engineers in technology Services, are part of the BNSF telecommunications team, led by Gary Grissum, assistant vice president, telecommunications. their team is responsible for designing and implementing the train-network communication functionality for BNSF’s positive train control (PtC) system. and it’s no small task.

In California, BNSF is already gearing up to meet mandated positive train control (PTC) requirements for both freight and commuter operations, as stipulated by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

Those requirements mean that BNSF must install PTC on track that meets the following criteria:

• Movement of more than four passenger trains per day

• Movement of 15 million gross tons and any passenger traffic

• Movement of 5 million gross tons and any quantity of toxic-by-inhalation or poisonous-by-inhalation traffic.

For BNSF, those requirements could encompass approximately 700 miles of track in California, though the PTC team hasn’t yet finalized system planning, according to Dave Galassi, assistant vice president, Network Control Systems (NCS), who heads BNSF’s PTC program.

In 2010, BNSF is concentrating on the Bakersfield, San Bernardino and Stockton subdivisions. For these three subdivisions, Signal and Telecommunications work groups are responsible for:

• Completing 28 cutovers • Installing 136 new signals • Replacing or installing 63 bungalows

• Hanging 25 new PTC antennas on existing base towers

“The Engineering and Telecommunications teams are accomplishing a large amount of work and should be substantially complete with the field infrastructure needed for PTC on these three California subdivisions by the end of this year,” Galassi says. “Additionally, the NCS Geographic Information Systems team has collected data on critical assets across these three territories.” For more information on BNSF’s PTC progress, employees can check an interactive map on the team’s PTC intranet site: Depart-ments>>Operations>>Positive Train Control.

BNSF gears up for positive train control in California

• Refining modeling tools, and • Drafting engineering specifications to

incorporate radio testingTeam 2: Constructing new base towers.

This team’s efforts include:• Acquiring required permits• Installing PTC antennas on towers and

waysides, and • Overseeing kit installations where PTC

telecommunications components are bundled and delivered to designated bungalows, and are then installed and tested

Planning the networkJim Barrett and the planning team have

conducted extensive coverage analysis studies to ensure continuous communication coverage in the PTC 220 MHz environment. The team conducted these tests in four basic environments found across the BNSF system: rural, urban, dense urban and mountain.

Cellular tests on the Wichita Falls, Texas, Emporia, Kan., and Stockton, Calif., subdivisions also proved that cellular technology is a viable

PtC and telecommunications by the numbers:• Produce 118 coverage analysis models• Retool and test more than 9,900 wayside units• Retool approximately 750 existing base stations• Construct more than 35 new base towers• Test and accept about 4,000 radios

Telecommunications Maintenance Maintainers Eric Allen (top) and Tim Mitchell (bottom) finish installing an 18-foot PTC antenna on the Ottawa, Kan., base tower.


RAILWAY I FALL 2010 9

Dear Valued Member of Team BNSF:

A t the end of our third quarter, the BNSF team lost a colleague who was fatally injured, Mr. Andrew K. Weaver, a roadmaster with 31 years’ experience. Mr. Weaver had

stepped off a westbound inspection train and crossed the track behind the inspection train, when he was struck by an eastbound train passing on an adjacent track. My deepest sympathy and prayers go out to Mr. Weaver’s family, colleagues and friends. I have spent time reflecting on this tragic incident, and I continue to believe it is imperative that each one of us must deliberately choose to work safely every minute of every day. Our safety vision of an accident- and injury-free workplace can only be met when each one of us truly commits to working safely. That commitment involves approaching job tasks in a way that eliminates at-risk behavior, every day with every task. It means committing to situational awareness for yourself and for co-workers, expecting movement of trains, engines and cars at any time, on any track and in either direction. It means empowering yourself to work safely when you encounter a condition or work practice by protecting yourself and co-workers, correcting the condition and reporting unacceptable areas of risk. Overall, our safety performance this year has been trending favorably after the spike we saw in the second half of 2009 into early 2010. Since April, we’ve had a favorable improvement to our present performance, with many measurements showing improvement over 2009. However, we continue to have too much variability in our performance. We must improve consistency and apply best practices to:

n Eliminate all at-risk behaviors.n Commit to and comply with existing rules 100 percent of the time.n Focus on accountability.

As the weather turns colder, please take time to review the Winter Weather Preparedness checklist on page 12 to ensure that you are taking necessary precautions, as you encounter cold weather, snow and ice conditions in the coming months. We have many teams demonstrating that our safety vision is achievable. Four divisions are below our 2010 target frequency ratio target of 1.80 – Powder River, Nebraska, Kansas and Chicago – and many other work teams have been injury-free this year.*

I am encouraged by the safety successes of Powder River Division employees, which you can read about on page 10. By building relationships, emphasizing communication and providing enhanced safety training, employees there are exhibiting the best safety performance in the history of the division. Countless employees are working safely, including employees leading the PRIDE program on the Southwest Division. Not only are they committing to safety for themselves, but they are also engaging co-workers to make that same commitment through a peer-to-peer program. I hope you’ll take time to read about the PRIDE program and how employees are improving communications and helping decrease exposure to risk (page 11). I believe that by focusing on safety basics outlined in our Safety Action Plans, and by adhering to critical behaviors, our commitment to safety will help us achieve a safer workplace. Sincerely,

Mark Schulze Vice President, Safety, Training and Operations Support

Remembering why wechoose safety

*As of Sept. 30, 2010

10 RAILWAY I FALL 2010

Waller and Merriman, with management support, developed and coordinated enhanced safety training at BNSF and on the division, which stresses risk tolerance and reduction strategies, and explores specific safety topics. Today, that training provides a blueprint for a shared safety vision.

Jeff Wright, regional vice president, Operations, Central, sees evidence of that shared goal among employees. “Employees on the Powder River Division are aligned in the BNSF safety vision that all accidents and incidents are preventable.”

Waller and Merriman took safety education on the road, driving as much as 700 miles to talk to local chairmen, employees and managers at locations

across the division. “Reaching out to build those relationships helped engage employees in the safety process,” says Merriman.

The effort to solidify relationships is also a focus for Engineering and Mechanical employees. “It’s a process,”

says Jeff Neely, safety assistant, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes. “Relationships are

a two-way street and take time to build.”

Framing safety around basics

Employees across the division and at every level exhibit a certain

tour-de-force attitude when discussing safety. Sloggett says that a safety attitude is an individual decision. “We provide safety leadership training, but every employee must make a commitment to be safe.”

At the Alliance Car Shop, employees demonstrate a safety vigilance that

results in near-constant conversations about safety, says Andy Callahan, general foreman. “Supervisors and employees support each other to meet new safety challenges. I see that happening every day

with our Task-at-Hand initiative.” Also at Alliance, Transportation employees have undertaken work practice

observations, a peer-to-peer safety program that is strictly administrated by scheduled employees. “We are one of the first and one of the few locations where Transportation employees conduct work practice observations,” says Annette Henkel, engineer and co-chair of the Alliance site-safety committee. “Employees here share a desire to reduce their own and co-workers’ at-risk behaviors.” Presently, employees are strongly focused on reducing authority violations and have initiated a separate peer-to-peer program to address potential risks.

Communicating about safetySharing safety, particularly risk-related, information is a high priority for

the division. Alliance’s site-safety team has focused this year on opening lines of communication among cab crews, dispatchers and yard employees, according to Henkel. And Engineering crews communicate with yard employees, a necessity for safely handling about 80 coal trains daily, according to Mark Palmer, Alliance section foreman.

Besides an employee-created Wiki safety site to ensure a robust “one-stop safety resource,” division employees have innovatively used technology to facilitate communication. Powder River was the first to use handheld “clickers” for interactive rules training, which allow participants to answer questions anonymously in a group setting. This initiative, the Classroom Performance Systems, has since expanded across the BNSF system.

Gerald Doremus, safety assistant, Brotherhood of Railway Carmen Division-TCU, sums up the Powder River’s safety powerhouse. “Our greatest strength is our people. They really want to do their job safely, so they can go

home the same way they came to work.”

BNSF’s Powder River Division strategically concentrates on the company’s coal business and the 16 coal mines located across the division. To work safely, division employees across all major work groups focus on building relationships, communication and safety education.The result is that employees are managing risk better than at any time in the division’s history, averaging a 15-percent reduction in overall injuries, including reportable and nonreportable, from 2009.

A s any builder knows, starting with a strong foundation is necessary to the integrity of the structure. And laying a strong safety foundation

is exactly where Powder River Division employees – both scheduled and exempt – chose to begin. Testament that employees are making progress against many of their safety goals is evidenced by measurable improvements from 2009 to 2010*:

n 43-percent reduction in reportable injuriesn 42-percent reduction in total frequency

But numbers alone don’t describe the employee effort involved in building Powder River’s safety culture or the interaction that exists among the work groups at all levels. As Tom Albanese, Powder River Division general manager, says, “Employees here have truly committed to safety. Their commitment involves a work ethic that demonstrates safe processes and a level of accountability for their own safety that is exceptional.”

Both Craig Sloggett, general director, Maintenance, Powder River, and Luz Esquivel, field superintendent, Operations, Zone 9, agree. “Employees take ownership of their safety,” says Sloggett.

And Esquivel highlights the fact that employees at the three car shops on the division have achieved a 67-percent reduction in injuries from 2009. “Our supervisors and employees are definitely supporting each other and intervening when needed to guard against hazards.”

Strong footing grounded in safety

Ask Steve Waller, United Transportation Union division safety coordinator, how he and Brad Merriman, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen division safety coordinator, contributed to employee safety, and he responds, “We started with safety basics to inform all employees. They needed to understand safety processes like closed-loop safety process, the Safety Issue Resolution Process and the Safety Summit Agreement.”

Number of employees: 2,083• Engineering: 459• Transportation: 1,449• Mechanical: 175

Notable injury-free streaks:• Powder River Division: 26 days• Powder River Structures, led by Cory Knutson: 1,162 days• Guernsey Yard Transportation, led by Mike Wirtz: 2,247 days• Guernsey Mechanical Yard, led by Dan Silva: 391 daysNumber of mainline track miles: 1,635Current number of train loadings per day: 88

Powder River Division facts*

*As of Sept. 30, 2010

All Powder River employees have contributed to safe behavior this year: Transportation crews have achieved a 39-percent reduction in reportable injuries from 2009; Engineering employees have reduced reportable injuries by 40 percent, and Mechanical employees have achieved a 67-percent reduction in reportable injuries this year.

Powder River Divison lays a foundation for safet y

RAILWAY I FALL 2010 11

TY&E Shoving Movement Checklist GCOR 5.3.7, 6.27, 6.28, 6.5

RevIeW ROUTINeReADINeSS

Did your job safety briefing clearly communicate: • That protection is needed? • The employee who will provide protection? • How protection will be provided? Determine if riding the car is necessary. Consider any possible close clearances and switches improperly lined. • The position of the employee providing protection and that he/she should see the point at all times during movement, or that the employee is relieved by: Local instruction for tracks equipped with shove lights/cameras Special instructions specific to tracks involved Rule 6.6 (Picking Up Crew Member) Pullout move with an activated Remote Control Zone • Additional information related to the movement? Switch/derail position, close clearances, stop signals, authority limits

Are you prepared to control the movement at a speed that allows you to stop within half of the distance specified, unless additional directions have been received?

If you are protecting a shoving movement while operating under the provisions of GCOR 6.27 or 6.28, can you stop short of: • Trains? • Engines? • Railroad cars? • Men or equipment fouling the track? • Stop signal? • Derails or switches improperly lined?

If you are providing protection, are you focused solely on the movement?

Do you know the maximum speed for shoving cars on a main track or controlled siding? • Freight trains – 20 mph • Passenger trains – 30 mph

Have you considered snow plow operations in the movement?

If you are using radio communication to make a movement, are you ready to provide: • The direction in relationship to the front of the controlling locomotive? Use “ahead,” “backup” and “stop.” • The distance? Use 50 feet as a standard for one car length. Do you need to receive engineer acknowledgment of the distance (more than four cars are involved in the movement)?

defined list of safe behaviors. As of Oct. 7, 2010, they have trained 80 observers.

After completing an observation, observers then pass forms to facilitators, who enter the data in a confidential database. Spears stresses that observers are not concerned with individuals, only behaviors. “The form that observers use remains anonymous and, after our facilitators enter results in a confidential database, is destroyed,” he says. “This is a no-name, no-blame process.”

Moffett adds, “We are identifying trends and, when necessary, we create action plans to solve at-risk behaviors and communicate this to the field.”

Observers also provide positive reinforcement, a key component of the process. Says Coker, “We want to reinforce safe behavior by encouraging our peers to repeat those safe behaviors.”

Since late 2009, PRIDE observers have completed 489 observations, including 4,254 instances of positive feedback, based on a behavioral inventory list. The process has also proactively identified at-risk behaviors and

documented successful action plans to address those. Evidence that Transportation employees on the Clovis Subdivision are working more safely is reflected in the 50-percent reduction in reportable injuries for the subdivision from 2009 performance.

“We will continue communicating and advocating for the PRIDE process,” says Spears. “It is ‘us’ working for us.”

employee Safety Tips

“It’s every individual’s responsibility to oversee the safety of their crew and co-workers who are in sight at all times. No exceptions.” – Matt Leonard, switchman,

Alliance, Neb.

“Take time to do your task safely!”– Dan Olson, electronics

technician, Willmar, Minn.

Focus on Safety

S outhwest Division employees promoted PRIDE in 2009 after a core group of eight

employees, four conductors and four engineers, experienced the loss of several colleagues within a 44-day period. “It was a difficult time,” says Rick Switzer, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen safety coordinator. “We began looking at how we could better address safety, and we did not want a ‘flavor-of-the-month’ program.”

According to Larry Coker, United Transportation Union safety coordinator, one of the first things the group defined was their goal. “We wanted a safety process, not a program. A process is ongoing and sustainable.”

After research that included reviewing other railroads’ processes and meetings with the Federal Railroad Administration, the team formulated Personal Responsibility In Decreasing Exposure, or PRIDE, an employee-designed safety process unique to the Southwest Division that:

n Addresses cab communication

n Emphasizes situational awareness

n Decreases risk exposureAdditionally, the process is supported by the

science of safety, based on proven safety concepts, and relies on regular, immediate feedback.

PRIDe in actionPRIDE is administered solely by scheduled

employees, while division management provides logistical support for the initiative. Two facilitators, Rick Spears, engineer, and Art Moffett, conductor, manage daily tasks associated with the process, including training employees to observe peer behavior against a

vP, Safety, Training and Operations Support:Mark Schulze, [email protected]

editor:Linda Jacobson, [email protected]

Contributing Photographers:Larry Doremus, Newslink, Shawn Peter, PRIDE Steering Committee, Chris Stjern

Got a story idea? Send story ideas, safety tips, suggestions and comments to [email protected] or call Eric Weber at (817) 352-1144.

SAFeTY vISION We believe every accident or injury is preventable. Our vision is that BNSF will operate free of accidents and injuries.

PRIDE Steering Committee members discuss possible action plans.

Southwest Division promotes PRIDEAfter the Southwest Division earned back-to-back Safety Bell Awards in 2007 and 2008, the division experienced a marked increase in serious incidents. Transportation employees on the Clovis Subdivision decided to proactively define an ongoing, sustainable safety process. The result is PRIDE, a peer-to-peer safety process that addresses critical behaviors.

Workplace Does your vehicle have a “winter car kit”

that includes: • Flashlight and extra batteries? • Jumper cables, towing rope or chain? • First aid kit and extra blankets or sleeping bag? • Tools, tire chains, tarp and bright cloth?

Have you inspected all safety equipment (brakes, tires, wipers, heaters/defrosters, lights) on a vehicle before operating it?

Do you have a full tank of gas and a cell phone? Have you checked the latest weather conditions

along your travel route? Have you notified someone of your travel route

and anticipated arrival time?

Before going out in cold weather, have you dressed in several loose layers of clothing, wearing: • Cotton, wool or polypropylene next to your skin? • An insulating middle layer of wool or down? • A waterproof, windproof outer layer?

When wearing high-visibility work wear, are you wearing it on the outside of winter garments as required?

Do gloves/mitts allow for hand flexibility? • Do gloves have an inner insulating layer and outer waterproof layer?

Is your winter footwear approved for ice and snow? (S-21.2.4, Anti-Slip Winter Footwear) • Do your boots allow for two pairs of socks? • Are socks a cotton blend or polypropylene material?

Are your hands, feet, face, and head covered?

Have you participated in a job safety briefing that included: • Winter conditions and temperatures to expect? • Type of PPE appropriate to weather? An inspection of winter-related PPE? • Review of any potential for slip, trip or fall conditions in your work environment? • Precautions for walking in snowy and icy conditions? • Instructions to stretch often to improve flexibility and reduce stiffness?

Do you perform a risk assessment before walking on ice or snow to select the path/work area that is most level and stable? • Do you use small steps or shuffle? • Do you use hand grabs, handholds and handrails whenever available?

Have you allowed sufficient time to perform your job tasks safely, given weather conditions?

WINTeR WeATheR PRePAReDNeSS

Clothing vehicle

12 RAILWAY I FALL 2010

BNSF closes No. 5,000BNSF’s Crossing Closure team is a cross-functional team that oversees the company’s grade-crossing closure program and leads the industry in this safety effort. The team closed the railroad’s 5,000th grade crossing Sept. 9 at Sioux Falls, S.D.

When a Twin Cities Division crew pulled out the last plank and removed the surface

of an at-grade crossing Sept. 9 in Sioux Falls, S.D., BNSF ceremonially marked the 5,000th grade-crossing closure as part of the company’s grade-crossing closure program. The closure marks a major milestone for BNSF, which leads the industry in this safety effort, according to Mark Schulze, vice president, Safety, Training and Operations Support.

Officials from the city of Sioux Falls, the state of South Dakota and BNSF marked the milestone with a ceremony near the crossing and in view of a new overpass being constructed at 69th Street. Officials also dedicated the closure to the late Spencer Arndt, who passed away last spring and who, as assistant director of Public Projects, was instrumental in creating BNSF’s crossing-closure program in 2000.

“Safety is a top priority at BNSF,” says Lyn Hartley, BNSF director of Public Projects. “We have learned over time that one of the best ways to address grade-crossing safety is to reduce the number of at-grade crossings.”

Since the beginning of the closure initiative, the team has closed more than 15 percent of its crossings. Today, BNSF has approximately 17,000 public and 8,500 private and pedestrian at-grade crossings across the railroad’s 32,000-mile network. BNSF also consistently sustains one of the lowest highway-railroad grade-crossing collision rates in the rail industry.

Closing crossingsThe Crossing Closure team is a cross-

functional group comprised of 28 employees – 11 from the Public Projects group in Engineering and 17 from the Field Safety Support team in Safety. The closures are just one of many responsibilities for these team members. Public Projects employees also work closely with regional, state and local leaders on a variety of joint Engineering

projects. Field Safety Support employees manage extensive educational and enforcement projects, raising awareness of grade-crossing safety in communities.

Removing a crossing can take anywhere from four months to a year or more, depending on the number of parties involved and the complexity of the crossing. To begin the process, the team first identifies at-grade crossings that are unnecessary, redundant or that meet other criteria. Then, depending on whether the crossing is public or private, the team will take appropriate steps to complete the closure.

Thus far in 2010, the closure team has closed nearly 339 highway-railroad crossings and plans to close an additional 111 by the end of the year.

However, closing crossings is only one part of BNSF’s program to improve grade-crossing safety and to raise awareness of grade-crossing safety laws. Other elements include: n Community education and awareness n Train crew education n Crossing safety technology n Crossing resurfacing n Vegetation control

n Installation of warning devices n Track/signal inspection and maintenance

Grade-crossing safetyBNSF’s community education and awareness

programs are extensive. The following highlights from 2009 reflect BNSF’s typical annual grade-crossing safety community outreach: n BNSF sponsored more than 8,400

Operation Lifesaver classes, targeting high-risk drivers.

n BNSF conducted more than 50 Officer on the Train programs, allowing local law enforcement the opportunity to observe motorist and pedestrian behavior from the cab of a locomotive or from the ground at a grade crossing.

n BNSF participated in more than 50 positive enforcement efforts in which motorists who obey grade-crossing laws were thanked for their safe driving.

n In BNSF’s “Roll Call” program, the team conducted more than 400 follow-up visits to law enforcement agencies.

n BNSF participated in 123 Grade Crossing Collision Investigation courses, which are four- to 16-hour courses offered at law enforcement academies.

n BNSF offered more than 700 truck driver education programs to trucking companies.

Since 1995, BNSF’s grade-crossing collisions declined 70 percent, from 5.41 per million train miles to 1.60 per million train miles in 2009.

“Our program has achieved these successes because of dedicated BNSF employees who play a very important role in helping close crossings,” says Steve Neubauer, director, Field Safety Support. “We appreciate everything they do to help make communities we serve safer.”

For more information, access the grade-crossing safety website: Safety & Rules>>Safety Home>>Grade Crossing.

A Twin Cities Division crew removes planks from the 69th Street at-grade crossing in Sioux Falls, S.D.


l ast year, BNSF asked employees to submit healthy ideas for lunches, snacks and desserts as part of its “Going to Beans the Healthy Way Challenge.” (“Beans” is railroad slang for breakfast, lunch or dinner.) Hundreds of recipes for the challenge were received, then railroaders submitted thousands of votes for their favorites. Most of the winning entries have been collected in an original BNSF publication just for you: Railroader’s Guide to Healthy Workday Eating.

This easy-to-read, pocket-sized guide includes a number of delicious and healthy lunch, snack and dessert suggestions from BNSF employees. These are the foods you’ll find in the lunch grips and brown bags of railroaders all over the system.

In addition to tasty recipes, the guide offers some simple tips on eating better without making radical changes to your diet. For example, a Fueling Your Body section lists sources of nutrients: carbohydrates (carbs), proteins and fats under a GO, SLOW and WHOA chart. GO foods are those you can eat almost any time, such as whole grains, veggies, fruits and low-fat dairy products. SLOW foods are OK to eat sometimes (pancakes, frozen fruit juice bars, broiled hamburgers, etc.), and

WHOA foods you eat only once in awhile (fried eggs, ice cream, cookies, ribs, fried fish, etc.).

A Weight Balance section includes a chart to help you estimate calorie needs based on your activity level. An Easy Meal Planning section uses “The Plate Method” to show the right mix of foods in your meals. You can also find out the 7 Important Eating Tips for a Healthy Heart, Weight and Mind. This section includes helpful nutrition and serving size facts. (For example, do you know how many almonds are in one serving? The answer is 24.)

You can access the Railroader’s Guide to Healthy Workday Eating online at the Online Wellness Center. Groups may also request printed copies of the guide by contacting Your HEALTH Matters by e-mail at [email protected].

A Healthier Way Forward

Hot (off the press) and delicious, tooa healthy lunch guide for you, with food ideas from BNSF railroadersWho knows better what BNSF railroaders like to eat for lunch than you … and your co-workers?

Argentine: Where losers are winners

The Plate Method in the guide helps you get the right mix of foods in your meals.

Employees at the Argentine LMIT in Kansas City, Kan., are exchanging ideas for nutritious meals and workout regimens as they attempt to win … by losing.

The first “Biggest Loser” weight-loss competition at the diesel service facility was originally between only two employees earlier this year. Then it expanded to 16 participants. Each contributed to a fund, which went to the employee who lost the largest percentage of body weight from Dec. 1 to May 1. That employee, Electrician Nick Reppond, lost 36 pounds.

More employees expressed their interest in losing weight, and a second competition began July 15 with 37 participants. The competition ends

Nov. 15, when both a first- and second-place winner will be announced.

Reppond notes that the friendly competition helps motivate employees to take action to lose weight, be it diet or exercise. “Everyone has their own reasons for entering the competition, but the prize certainly will be a nice holiday bonus.”

Some lean ‘bean’ favoriteshere are a few of the employee creations featured in the Railroader’s Guide to Healthy Workday Eating :

The Almost Elvis Spread peanut butter on a whole wheat tortilla. Place a thinly sliced banana or apple and roll up tortilla.

– Mike Anderson, Aberdeen, S.D.

The Turkey Bird Sandwich Place chicken, turkey bacon, 1 tsp. honey mustard and light Swiss cheese between two slices of whole wheat bread.

– Donald Sawyer, Clovis, N.M.

The “Angelic” Egg Step 1: Slice hard-boiled eggs in half. Remove yolk. Step 2: Use a tablespoon to mash a half cup of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and sodium-free spices such as Mrs. Dash. Step 3: Fill the empty egg white with the mixture and enjoy.

– Gary Curl, Vancouver, Wash.

Caramel DelightDice 1 banana and mix into low-fat yogurt. Drizzle with fat-free caramel sauce.

– Felix Apodaca, Denver

Electrician Nick Reppond was the shop’s “Biggest Loser” in the first weight-loss competition.

14 RaiLWay I FALL 201014 RaiLWay I FALL 2010

2010: Glacier National Park celebrates 100 yearsIn 1910, the world was changing, and America was on the move. That year, President Taft signed legislation to create glacier national Park, thanks in part to louis hill, son of great northern Railway (gn) founder James J. hill, who used his influence with Congress to get the bill passed.

From 1927 until 1953, German-American artist Winold Reiss painted more than 300 portraits of members of the Blackfeet tribe, whose reservation ran along the eastern border of Gla-cier National Park. The “Floyd Middle Ryder” portrait by Reiss includes a landscape of the park.

Austrian-American artist John Fery was commissioned to paint hundreds of Glacier National Park panoramic landscapes from 1910 through 1917. His “Grinnell Mountain-McDermott Falls” captures the lush and pristine beauty of Glacier with a glimpse of the Swiss chalet-architecture lodges.

GN’s ‘See America First’ campaign left a lasting legacyLike other western railroads of the time, the Great Northern Railway commissioned paintings to entice tourists to travel the West. The “See America First” promotion employed the talents of such artists as John Fery, Johannes Anderson and Winold Reiss, among others.

Today, much of their artwork is displayed at BNSF’s headquarters in Fort Worth. Pictured are two favorites.

he GN, a BNSF predecessor, not only brought visitors to the park for many years, but was instrumental in developing many Swiss-style hotels and chalets, most of which are still operating. Hill also financed the building of roads and trails and arranged much of the early transportation in the park, including red buses, now modernized and seen throughout the park today.

To attract Americans from the East Coast who were used to vacationing in Europe, GN ran a “See America First” campaign. The slogan was used on billboards and posters promoting Glacier National Park as “America’s Switzerland.” A number of artists were commissioned to paint the park’s natural scenic beauty for this campaign. (See sidebar.)

Today, BNSF employees can be proud of their heritage and association with the National Park System’s “Crown of the Continent,” which attracts more than 2 million visitors each year.

“We are a 1.2 million-acre park up here in northwest Montana,” says Glacier National Park Interpreter Bill Schustrom. “Even with all the infrastructure – the hotels, the roads, the amphitheaters, everything that’s here – 96 percent of this place is still as untouched today as it was when the first Native Americans were here.”

To commemorate the Glacier National Park centennial, the BNSF Foundation contributed $500,000 to help fund a historical exhibition, “Land of Many Stories.” A traveling portion of the display was exhibited at the Museum at Central

School in Kalispell, Mont., for the summer. The entire exhibit can be viewed at the Montana Historical Society Museum in Helena, Mont.

Editor’s Note: To learn more about the park and its centennial, visit the employee portal at employee.bnsf.com to view a Video News segment under the Communications tab. The video has also been posted on bnsf.com.

Amtrak’s Empire Builder brings passengers to Glacier National Park by way of BNSF tracks in the summer months.

Many of the Swiss-style hotels and chalets that the Great Northern built in the park are still operating.


Jim Pendley: Working on the (ho) railroadWhen Seattle Locomotive Engineer Jim Pendley looks at a 6-by-8-foot piece of plywood, he sees an empty canvas that is much more than a flat plane for a palette of colors. he envisions, instead, a three-dimensional train layout, one with a backdrop that can reach up to 9 feet tall.

Pendley’s is not just any HO-scale train layout relegated to a spare room or basement. Recognized as one of the greats in the 2009 special edition of Model Railroads magazine, Pendley’s layout is the size of a museum exhibit, currently 20 feet by 46 feet.

“I’ve built layouts before, but I wanted to try something rarely attempted at this scale,” he says. “That’s why the magazine recognized me and my crew in the special edition. It was very exciting, and they used 10 photos with my story.”

Pendley’s story as a model railroader began more than 30 years ago. A fourth-generation railroader, he started as an electrician with Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in Northern California. In 1990, he went to work for Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) and was promoted to engineer in 1994.

While with UP, he became fascinated with what was formerly the Western Pacific Railroad (WP) line through the Feather River Canyon of Northern California. This line had historically been important to BNSF predecessor Great Northern Railway (GN), as it provided a route for GN traffic between the Pacific Northwest and California, through an interchange with WP at Bieber, Calif., at the end of a line WP built north from Keddie. In 1982, the WP merged with the UP, and then, following the UP/Southern Pacific merger in 1996, BNSF purchased the Keddie-to-Bieber portion of the line and obtained trackage

rights over much of the remainder of the former WP.

Over the years, Pendley has taken hundreds of photos of the area, one that is unique and hazardous given the rugged mountain ranges. “There are bridges and tunnels, many cuts and fills, as well as grades of up to 1.5 percent. I saw it as the best of the best in terms of a possible

HO layout, and I knew I wanted to bring the line home one day.”

That day came 14 years ago, when Pendley first planned and built his Keddie Wye layout. The real Keddie Wye remains a vital link for the western railroads today – one leg of the wye connects Northern California to the Pacific Northwest; the other leads to Salt Lake City. Pendley’s versions are 19 inches high and include the Keddie Wye Bridge, a steel trestle that took 18 months to build.

After completing that project, he decided he wanted to go all out and build the area around Keddie, Calif., with the Keddie Wye as its centerpiece.

At his home near Yakima, Wash., where he, his wife and daughter keep horses and goats, there is plenty of property to accommodate his vision. He started by building a 55-by-20-foot addition to the barn – fully insulated, heated and lighted.

“I spend a lot of time in the winter out here,” he says of the addition, noting that his family joins him while they work on their respective hobbies.

To begin the WP project, Pendley drew the mainline track on the floor to see what would fit, including curves to accommodate 60-car trains. Then scenery, bridges and tunnels were planned, much like they are in real railroading to ensure that operations run smoothly.

Friends drop by frequently to help, including BNSF Signal Maintainer Paul Schmidt and BNSF Locomotive Engineer Greg Weirich. Early in the project, fellow modelers joined Pendley for a “plaster party” to install more than 100 pounds of plaster of paris to build a large portion of the mountains on the layout.

“Help from friends is essential, especially when building a layout of this proportion,” says Pendley. “Everyone has their own talents that they bring to the project, but the bottom line is to have fun.”

At times, the hobby can be a little tedious, concedes Pendley, who specializes in making

trees. So far he has more than 1,000, most of which he has made by hand.

Because he likes to model the eras between 1965 and 1985, he modeled four distinct eras of the WP on his layout: the 1960s (prior to creation of BN); just after the 1970 BN merger; the period just prior to the WP-UP merger; and post WP-UP merger. Scenery includes an intermodal yard, a lumber mill, and a rail yard with auto rack unloading, an industrial lead and grain elevator, among other scenes. Eventually he’d like to add a

Modeler Jim Pendley at the controls, with a Western Pacific train heading east on one leg of the Keddie Wye Bridge and a BN train in the background. The trees that blanket the mountains are his specialty.

The Keddie Wye Bridge portion of Pendley’s layout is the centerpiece. Each rail (about 3 inches long) is spiked to each individual tie just like real track is laid. The wood ties are stained with black leather die and alcohol to make them look realistic. To make the topography, real dirt is sifted before being ap-plied to the layout.

Jim Pendley’s layout is modeled after California’s Feather River Canyon, one of the least hospitable plac-es in which to build and maintain a railroad, with steep grades and rugged terrain. Here, a BN train emerges from a tunnel with very real-looking slide fences.

town with homes and more industries.“It’s kind of like stepping back in time for

a three-dimensional history,” he says. Pendley and fellow modelers are already

operating his layout using a variety of trains with varying locomotives, not too unlike the years of the WP, which had pooling agreements with a number of railroads. Ultimately Pendley’s goal is to operate trains via a dispatcher’s desk (with a computer screen) located under one of the mountains on the layout. “We plan to operate only on signal indications like CTC in the real world,” he says.

Working one section – a 6-by-8-foot piece of plywood – at a time, Pendley estimates that it will take another two to three years to complete this project. “I knew the scenery would take the most time, but now we have an end in sight.”

Kind of like a light at the end of one of his layout’s tunnels.

Editor’s Note: To see Jim Pendley’s layout in action, visit “Growling up the High Line” on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=growling+up+the+high+ line&aq=f

the biodiesel “B20” blend. Both will run a very similar number of miles, typically pulling the same amount of weight, and perform under the same weather conditions throughout the year.

Locomotive fuel injectors and filters from both locomotives will be removed and analyzed frequently throughout the 12-month test.

After just a few months, the initial findings show:

finding no. 1: Havre train crews say that the performance has been “good” and they have “not realized any noticeable difference.” moving forward: The team looks forward to testing the engine in extreme conditions to see how it performs.

finding no. 2: Biodiesel fuel naturally thickens and coagulates in colder temperatures. moving forward: The team will test various additives to ensure that the fuel remains fluid, especially as it is tested during cold winter months.

finding no. 3: Biodiesel fuel works as a lubricant and cleaning agent. As the fuel moved through the engine, it caused the fuel filters to clog, so the filters had to be replaced.

moving forward: With new filters and a clean fuel delivery system, the locomotives will now be maintained according to their traditional maintenance cycles.

At the end of the one-year test period, BNSF’s Mechanical team will analyze data collected from both locomotives. BNSF will share the findings with others in the rail industry.

As part of a continued commitment to the environment and communities, BNSF has previously tested natural gas, liquefied natural gas and hydrogen fuel. While each alternative fuel type shows promising results, testing continues in varying locomotive types.

“BNSF continues to evaluate the use of various types of alternative fuels in our locomotive fleet,” says Tom Lambrecht, general director, Mechanical-Locomotives. “As these new fuel alternatives become economically and operationally feasible, we want to be ready to adapt them to our operation where we can.”

For the past several years, BNSF has partnered with universities, agricultural companies, locomotive manufacturers, industry organizations and the U.S. Department of Defense to test alternative fuel types and explore technology to support their use in locomotives.

So what’s the latest development in the search for reliable, low-emission and efficient alternative fuel types? The answer is biodiesel fuel – a mixture of 80 percent diesel and 20 percent Montana-grown camelina or canola seed oil – being tested at BNSF’s diesel shop in Havre, Mont.

“We are testing biodiesel fuel in partnership with Montana State University-Northern’s Bio-Energy Center,” says Beau Price, shop superintendent, Havre. “This iteration of alternative fuel testing is focused on the reliability impact of higher biodiesel concentrations on locomotive engines. It’s critical that we understand how the fuel will perform in our equipment in all climates and under extreme weather conditions.”

The tests will be conducted for one year using two SD40-2 locomotives, both in yard switching service at Havre. One locomotive will be used as the control, using traditional diesel fuel; the second is the test locomotive, which will use

BNSF continues to test alternative fuelsBiodiesel the latest evaluated for reliability, efficiency and emissions reduction

Darrell Newbury (left), stationary engineer, Mechani-cal, and Jim Lowen, maintenance welder, Mechanical, have helped in the handling, storing, sampling and mixing of biodiesel fuel for the project.

A mixture of 80 percent diesel and 20 percent Montana-grown canola seed oil is being tested.

K.C. master retarder replacement completed according to planWhen 2,000 railcars a day go over a master retarder at a hump yard, timing to replace it has to be just right so as not to interrupt service, so pre-planning is critical.

Employees at the Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kan., prepared for the change for months. Replacing the master retarder and pincher retarder, along with reworking the master retarder’s foundation, took place over the Labor Day weekend. In addition, crews took advantage of the reduced traffic to perform significant track maintenance and work on the receiver lead.

John Sutphin, assistant superintendent at Argentine, said the yard handles 110 to 115 trains per day. During the scheduled work window, trains were rerouted for about 48 hours.

The yard was back to normal after the project was completed injury-free.

Over the Labor Day weekend, crews replaced the master retarder and pincher retarder at Argentine Yard.

In the search for reliable, low-emission and efficient alternative fuels, BNSF is testing a biodiesel at Havre, Mont.



To accommodate the Schnabel railcar move, some permanent telecommunication and electric structures had to be relocated.

Schnabel, world’s longest railcar, visits BNSFRecently, BNSF safely delivered a commodity reactor tank with a waybill weight of nearly 1.25 million – yes, million – pounds to its final destination in El Dorado, Kan., using the Schnabel railcar.

The trip started in Toronto and lasted more than two weeks, but the “journey” began two years ago when the order was placed and the reactor built.

Planning a route for the world’s longest railcar – at 351 feet, with 36 axles, that can’t travel faster than 15 mph – is not easy, especially considering that it moved on the BNSF Southern Transcon. Because this railcar can shift horizontally and vertically, adjustments can be made when it approaches an obstacle that it otherwise couldn’t clear.

The reactor began its trip in Toronto on

August 20 and was interchanged to BNSF at Congress Park, Ill. The train departed the Chicago area at 1 a.m. Aug. 22 to ensure minimal delay to commuter trains.

A “high-wide bulletin” outlined exact steps the train crews needed to take at each location. Field supervisors and employees from Maintenance of Way, Signal and Telecommunications stood by to temporarily move signals, mileposts and other fixtures along the tracks. Some permanent telecommunication and electric structures had to be relocated to provide a clear route. Once the reactor passed, crews put some of the relocated fixtures back in place.

Others who helped included Mike Moore, who at the time was manager, Clearances;

Gene Knipp, senior manager, Service Design; Dave Mehl, director, Line Capacity Planning; Danny Reynolds, general superintendent, Transportation; and Victor Tamosiunas, engineer, Structures Standards. Economic Development ensured the appropriate access permits were approved and in hand.

Resource Protection also played a key role. Officers were on board and guarded the railcar when it was in the yard. Dispatchers carefully monitored the shipment’s progress, and a road foreman of engines rode with the train over the entire trip, while a trainmaster shadowed the train from a BNSF vehicle.

Kudos to all who participated in this monstrous move!

Prizes: $100 gift card for grand prize winner; $50 gift card for category winners

Rules1. Open to children and

grandchildren of BNSF employees and retirees; relatives in the immediate household of employees and retirees are also eligible.

2. All entrants must be 18 years of age or younger.

3. The artwork must be drawn or painted by hand, using crayons or other art tools. No computer-generated artwork will be considered.

4. The theme of the art should be “Stay Off the Tracks” or “Look, Listen and Live.”

5. Art must include a railroad image and show a railroad right-of-way.

6. One entry per child on an 81/2 x11-inch sheet of paper. The entry should include a title for the artwork with the following information clearly printed on the back:

. Child’s name, age and home address; . BNSF parent or grandparent’s name,

plus title and BNSF employee number (for retirees, use most recent title and

employee number); . Signature of parent, grandparent

or guardian; . Full work address and 10-digit

phone number(s) of BNSF parent/grandparent. E-mail is optional.

Deadline for entryThe deadline for entry is Nov. 30, 2010.

Please mail entries to:

BnSf Railway Company Attn: Rachel Czudak –

Safety Department 2600 lou menk Drive, ooB-1 fort Worth, TX 76131

Note: By signing the submitted drawing, the parent, grandparent or guardian agrees that BNSF assumes non-exclusive use of the entry for any use the company deems appropriate.

For more information on grade-crossing safety, visit http://www.operationlifesaver.org or http://www.commonsenseuseit.com/.

Kids, sharpen your crayons! the Labor Relations and Safety departments are again sponsoring a safety drawing contest focusing on the “Stay off the tracks” and “Look, Listen and Live” themes of operation Lifesaver. BNSF is committed to the goals of operation Lifesaver, which focuses on reducing fatalities and collisions involving rail right-of-way and highway-rail grade crossings.

Here are the guidelines:Theme: “Stay Off the Tracks” and “Look, Listen and Live”

Entries will be judged and prizes awarded for the grand prize winner and for each age category. Age should be as of Nov. 30, 2010. The age categories are as follows: . 3 and younger . 4-6 . 7-9 . 10-12 . 13-18

The Schnabel is the world’s longest railcar at 351 feet and 36 axles. It can’t travel faster than 15 mph.

Ready, set, draw! BNSF Safety Drawing Contest 2010 is under way

Rescue task Force brings freedom to the disabled

A San Diego locomotive engineer traveled thousands of miles this summer to give those in need the means to be mobile.

Jeffrey Plumlee and his wife, Andrea, traveled to El Salvador in August as a part of Rescue Task Force (RTF), a San Diego-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide aid to people “who have been marginalized by geography or economic deprivation.” It was the locomotive engineer’s first such trip; Andrea has traveled to the Central American country before with RTF.

The Plumlees and their colleagues distributed wheelchairs to handicapped individuals in impoverished communities. RTF partnered with Free Wheelchair Mission, and the two organizations together have shipped and assembled more than 1,500 chairs in recent years.

“Wheelchairs mean so much to these people. It means freedom and empowerment,” Plumlee says. “A family raising a disabled child often finds themselves imprisoned in

their home…The mother usually becomes homebound because she is unable to leave the child to tend to even the simplest tasks, such as going to the market. Many children who before may have been carried to school are now unable to attend school due the transportation


problems of weight and being carried,” he says.Giving those in need a wheelchair allows

them to travel beyond their own community, whether to visit other cities or faraway relatives.

The Plumlees already had a list in hand of those receiving wheelchairs prior to their departure. It included people of all ages hindered by various disabilities.

Relaxing morning becomes lifesaving

A relaxing morning of fishing the day before a bass tournament changed quickly for

Beardstown, Ill., Machine Operator George Speed.

Speed, an experienced bass fisherman, had been on the waters of Lake Shelbyville for nearly an hour when he heard the jarring sound of two boats colliding.

“When I turned around, I saw pieces of the boat flying,” he says.

He immediately called 911 and headed toward the crash site. There were two men in the water. One was moving; one was unconscious, face down in the water.

Speed and another Good Samaritan turned the unconscious man face up.

Water temperatures were in the mid-50s to lower 60s. Previous first-aid training and having a wife who is a nurse taught Speed that there was a chance for hypothermia if they did not get the man out quickly.

Speed kept the young man calm while another witness piloted the boat to shore and a waiting ambulance.

Locks of LoveWhen it was time to get his hair cut, John

Wiseman, Glendive, Mont., electrician, wanted to do something special with it. He donated it to Locks of Love.

Wiseman went under the shears in honor

of his two sisters. His oldest sister, Veronica “Ronnie” Wiseman, died of cancer, while his

other sister, Michelle Hegel, is currently battling it.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘I can’t believe it – I’ve never seen you with short hair before,’” Wiseman says.

Locks of Love is a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces

to children who have lost their hair because of a medical condition. To donate to Locks of Love, hair is put into a ponytail or braid before it is cut and must measure at least 10 inches long.

Going an extra mileEach year for the past five years, Dave

Oborny, machinist, Lincoln, Neb., walked 12 miles as part of the Relay for Life event. This year, he walked 13 miles. The event helps raise money for cancer victims and their families. Funds raised go to everything from research and treatment to transportation, babysitting and even wigs for chemotherapy patients.

Oborny had been involved with the event before he began walking, contributing money and time. This summer, he raised more than

$1,400 for the American Cancer Society during the Relay for Life walk in Utica, Neb.

As someone with relatives affected by cancer, Oborny holds the cause in high regard. The most he

has raised participating in the event was about $1,900, something he hopes to duplicate soon.

He encourages anyone thinking about volunteering to participate in next year’s event, and to help raise money any way they can.

“It’s easy to sign up and get involved, and the event is a lot of fun,” Oborny says.

Jeff and Andrea Plumlee.

In addition to donating to Locks of Love, Electrician John Wiseman put the fin-ishing touches on the steam locomotive portion of his mural in the lunch room.

Machinist Dave Oborny raised more than $1,400 for the American Cancer Society.

George Speed, machine operator, saved two lives during a fishing expedition one morning.

BNSF to establish Work Retention BoardsHistorically, rail traffic volumes start declining in November or December, and the lower volumes continue through the first few months of the following year. These seasonal declines are part of normal traffic cycles.

Should traffic volumes decrease as expected in the coming weeks, BNSF does not intend to implement widespread furloughs of train, yard and engine (TY&E) employees. Instead, BNSF will establish Work Retention Boards, wherever labor agreements are in place with the unions to do so, if economic trends continue as expected.

BNSF has used Work Retention Boards in the past during seasonal downturns to provide income and benefits to employees instead of furloughs. In addition to providing some measure of security to TY&E employees, these Work Retention Boards help ensure that employees are available to return to work quickly when volumes start to rebound.

In 2009, however, the seasonal volume reduction was significantly amplified by the severe economic recession. Consistent with the dramatic

and sustained declines in traffic volumes, BNSF cancelled the Work Retention Boards and furloughed employees in 2009.

With the improving economy and significant volume increases in 2010, BNSF has been able to call back nearly all furloughed employees and, in fact, has been hiring TY&E employees at several locations to meet volume demands. In addition to providing continuity for employees, including those who had been furloughed during the recession, the Work Retention Boards will help BNSF retain newly hired employees.

“Improvements in traffic volumes and the economy have allowed us to re-establish Work Retention Boards this year. We believe that this will enable us to avoid widespread furloughing of employees,” explains Greg Fox, vice president, Transportation. “We recognize the impact that the recent extended furloughs had on employees and their families, and we don’t want to put these employees back into furlough so soon after that experience. We simply believe that the Work Retention Boards are the right thing to do, given our current economic environment.”


BNSF Units* handledYear-to-date through Oct. 13, 2010 2010 2009

Coal 1,872,804 1,902,143

Agricultural Products 816,640 722,134

Industrial Products 1,098,192 928,458

Consumer Products 3,333,962 3,057,167

System 7,121,598 6,609,902

BNSF Performance Measures

BNSF Reportable injuriesYear-to-date through Oct. 5, 2010

5542009

2010 519

2010 BNSF Velocity PerformanceQuarter-to-date through Oct. 12, 2010 4th Qtr. Goal Actual QTD

Locomotives miles per day 312.7 307.2

Agricultural car miles per day 204.0 201.6

Merchandise car miles per day 140.6 139.4

Coal car miles per day 336.5 305.4

Intermodal transit days 3.38 3.89

Locomotive data is measured as miles per day.

Agricultural, Merchandise and Coal active car cycle data is measured as miles per day on the BNSF system.

Intermodal average transit days=Average time between cutoff and deramp or interchange delivery (transit time starts at cutoff or first train departure if cutoff is after first train departure). The measure weights average trailer and container transit times. With this measure the lower the number the better.

*Carloads, trailers or containers

It’s time for high school seniors to apply for college scholarships, including those offered through the BNSF Foundation Scholarship Program. The Foundation will award up to 40 scholarships for the 2011-2012 college year.

Applicants will need to go online to fill out an application request. (Details included below.)

Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions.

Who is eligible?The program is available to current high

school seniors who are the dependent sons, daughters or stepchildren of full-time BNSF employees or of retired, furloughed, disabled or deceased employees of BNSF or its predecessor companies. Full-time employees must have at least two years of service as of Jan. 1, 2011, and must still be employed by BNSF when winners are selected in April. Retired, disabled or deceased employees must have completed the two-year requirement prior to ending their service with BNSF. Eligible students must have taken the SAT in their junior year.

When may students begin the application process?

The online application process may be accessed beginning Jan. 1, 2011, by going directly to the International Scholarship and Tuition Services (ISTS) link: https://aim.applyists.net/BNSF.

When are submissions due?Completed applications must be submitted

no later than April 1, 2011. The student or applicant is responsible for making sure his or her application is complete, including all required documentation. Since the Foundation is not able to keep track of students’ progress or the completeness of an application,

applicants should follow up with ISTS. ISTS may not contact students who have incomplete submissions as there are many more applications than scholarships available. An accurate and complete submission is part of the competition for the awards.

How many scholarships are available?

Up to 40 scholarships of at least $2,500 each will be awarded to full-time students enrolled in accredited four-year colleges/universities in the United States. Of these, up to 10 scholarships, at $5,000 each, are available through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). If not all 10 NMSC scholarships are awarded, the balance will be converted to ISTS scholarships at $2,500 each. All the scholarships are renewable for three additional years, with satisfactory academic progress. The BNSF Foundation National Merit winners are selected by the NMSC, and neither BNSF nor the Foundation has input in the selection of winners.

Who is eligible for national merit Scholarships?

To be eligible, students must have taken the PSAT in their junior year. The NMSC then notifies sponsors, such as BNSF, about award acceptances and provides scholarship certificates for presentation to winners. Neither BNSF Railway nor BNSF Foundation has any input in the selection of winners.

How are winners selected?For the scholarships handled by ISTS,

winners are selected largely on the basis of academic merit with consideration for past academic performance, leadership of and participation in school and community activities, and an essay. ACT or SAT scores are acceptable. Guidance counselors routinely supply the required test scores on the high school records accompanying the applications.

As mandated by federal law, neither BNSF Railway nor BNSF Foundation has any input in the selection of winners. All winners are screened, reviewed and selected by independent parties through ISTS or NMSC. The Foundation is unaware of who has applied until a preliminary list of winners is sent to the Foundation for confirmation of eligibility based on the parent’s employment status as described in the “Who is Eligible?” question above.

Can more than one scholarship be awarded to an individual?

No. A student cannot win more than one scholarship funded by the BNSF Foundation. Since neither award is guaranteed, it is recommended that National Merit Finalists apply for the scholarships handled by ISTS. Students who win a National Merit scholarship are automatically withdrawn from consideration for scholarships handled by ISTS.

How do I get an application?ISTS no longer accepts or uses paper

applications. To apply for a scholarship, go directly to the ISTS website through this link – https://aim.applyists.net/BNSF – and follow the instructions. If you are asked to enter a program key, please use BNSF.

What is the contact information for ISTS?• Mail:

BNSF College Scholarship Program c/o ISTS P.O. Box 23737 Nashville, TN 37202-3737

• Fax: 615-320-3151

• Website: https://aim.applyists.net/BNSF

• E-mail: [email protected]

online application accessible Jan. 1, 2011

BNSF College Scholarship Program

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the employee magazine of team bnsf fall 2010

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