BNSF

The National Transportation Safety Board has sent a team of investigators to investigate a rear end collision between two Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) trains. The collision occurred at 7 a.m. on April 17 in McPherson, Iowa. Early information indicates that a BNSF freight train collided with a standing BNSF maintenance train. Two BNSF employees were killed. Two locomotives and multiple cars derailed as a result of the accident. Michael Flannigan is serving as the Investigator-in-Charge for the 7-member team from the NTSB.

FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway Co. announced a planned 2011 capital commitment program of $3.5 billion. The largest component of the capital plan is spending $2 billion on BNSF’s core network and related assets. BNSF also said it plans to spend about $450 million to acquire 227 locomotives and approximately $350 million on freight car and other equipment acquisitions. The program also includes about $300 million for federally mandated positive train control (PTC) and $300 million for terminal, line and intermodal expansion and efficiency projects. BNSF’s expansion and efficiency projects will be primarily focused on the mid-continent and coal

WASHINGTON — The STB has dismissed a company’s claim BNSF Railway Co. is “double recovering revenue” from a fuel surcharge, but also denied the railroad’s motion to dismiss a second claim that is earning excessive profits from the surcharge.

FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF is challenging what it termed “deliberate bias” in the Star Tribune newspaper’s cherry-picking unrepresentative and isolated incidents to imply an unsafe culture at the company.