The Seattle Times reported that the five activists who blocked BNSF tracks in Washington during September 2014 were recently convicted of trespassing.
Read the entire article here.
Tag: BNSF
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported that BNSF has recently laid off rail yard workers in North Dakota and Minnesota.
According to BNSF, the furloughs are the result of customer volumes decreasing. Read the complete article here.
NewsmaxFinance.com reported that Warren Buffett’s BNSF railroad, owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., may offer a competing bid for Norfolk Southern Corp, throwing a wrench in Canadian Pacific Railway’s efforts for a $27 billion takeover of Norfolk Southern.
Read the complete article here.
Railroad has tentatively agreed to pay $71,700 for faililng to timely report leaks of crude oil along the state’s railway system
OLYMPIA, Wash. — BNSF Railway has agreed to pay $71,700 for failing to timely report crude oil leaks and other hazardous material spills along the state’s railway under a proposed settlement agreement.
Read more from The Seattle Times.
Some BNSF Railway employees are sounding the alarm about what they say are unsafe working conditions as a result of long shifts that could lead to extreme fatigue while hauling hazardous materials.
According to one BNSF employee who contacted the Pilot, the company has imposed a new method of operation that has employees working 12-hour days, sometimes six to 10 days in a row.
“Such a safety sensitive job for engineers and conductors running trains that are up to 17,000 tons, hauling hazardous materials and such,” said the employee who declined to be publicly identified.
Read more from Bakken.com.
What is believed to be the largest frac sand unit train to date in North America was recently delivered by BNSF and Southwestern Railroad to Rangeland Energy’s RIO Hub near Loving, N.Mex. The RIO Hub is part of Rangeland’s RIO System, which serves oil and gas producers in the Delaware Basin.
The 150-car unit train, operated by BNSF, carried 16,500 tons of frac sand used in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). Powered by five locomotives it originated in Ottawa, Ill., BNSF handed the train off to short line Southwestern Railroad at Clovis, N.Mex., for delivery to the RIO Hub.
The unit train arrived on Oct. 2 and was unloaded within 22 hours. The sand was stored at the RIO Hub and will supply an operator with a large quantity of sand for high-volume fracking jobs in the Delaware Basin.
Read more from RailwayAge.
A noisy yellow machine laying down railroad track near Alva, Oklahoma — as much as a mile a day of concrete and steel — is Warren Buffett’s solution to the industry’s dwindling coal traffic.
After this year, Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway will be more than 99 percent finished with a second, parallel line to its 2,200-mile Los Angeles-to-Chicago route. Doubling up will create a rail superhighway speeding deliveries of toys, electronics, autos and other goods, because trains won’t have to yield to each other on sidings as they do on single tracks.
The goal: help the unit of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which owns BNSF, grab cargo now going by road.
Read more from the Star-Telegram.
A record corn and soybean harvest is predicted for this year, and managers at South Dakota elevators and railroads say they’re prepared.
There’s been a recent effort to invest in railroad infrastructure statewide, thanks in part to a push from political delegates at the federal level. At the same time, many companies are adding grain storage facilities and other upgrades to make for a smooth harvest season at the elevators this year.
What is perhaps the state’s largest grain storage facility will be fully operational for this season in Emery, S.D. Last year, Cargill built a 5.2 million-bushel grain storage facility just south of town. The conveyor system wasn’t ready for harvest season last fall, but Cargill still used the building for storage, filling it to about half capacity with portable conveyers.
Read more from Tri-State Neighbor.
BNSF Railway Co. reported to its customers yesterday that it is experiencing an operational impact due to a track outage caused by wildfires in Essex, Mont.
The Class I informed customers in an Aug. 31 service advisory that the railroad’s main track though the area was open, but fires continue to burn, which may cause intermittent track closures.
In an Aug. 28 service advisory, BNSF said wildfires in northwestern Montana affected normal train operations through the area, which was evacuated due to the looming danger of the Sheep Fire. The fire had been advancing along BNSF’s Hi-Line Subdivision and came within 200 yards of its mainline. As a result, the railroad suspended traffic that night, according to the advisory.
Read more from Progressive Railroading.
LA CROSSE, Wis. — BNSF Railway says a temporary court injunction against use of its new track through the La Crosse River marsh would damage the railroad and disrupt the economy of the northern part of the country.
In documents filed this week, attorneys for BNSF challenge an order issued earlier this month by La Crosse County Circuit Judge Scott Horne, which allowed the railroad to continue construction of a second track through the marsh but restricted use of the track until legal challenges are settled in late September.
That order would have “a serious impact on interstate rail transportation, with effects that will be felt by thousands of rail customers across the northern United States,” the railroad argues.
Read more from LaCrosseTribune.com.