BNSF to build yard - Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co - Brief Article

Railway Track and Structures, Sept, 2000

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe is part of a project to transform a former U.S. Army arsenal into a 2,242-acre, $1-billion industrial park. BNSF will build an intermodal and switching yard adjacent to the complex.

The company has agreed to lease 560 acres and additionally plans to purchase 56 more. Besides providing rail service to the industrial park, BNSF plans to build an intermodal and automotive sorting facility, a transload facility for bulk commodity products, a storage track for equipment and cars and a container railyard for intermodal boxes and chassis.

The intermodal facility will initially increase BNSF's lift capacity in the Chicago-area by 400,000 units to 2.8 million annual lifts and the automotive facility, with its own switch yard, will eliminate the need for intermediate switching elsewhere, according to Rob Krebs, BNSF chairman and ceo.

BNSF also launched a new train service in cooperation with the Port of Houston Authority's Barbours Cut Terminal. The new service will handle and transport containers for Maersk Sealand, a steamship company, and will include one train weekly eastbound from the Port of Los Angeles to Houston and two trains weekly from Houston to Los Angeles.