Burlington Northern and Santa Fe - Facilities - Brief Article

Railway Age, Jan, 2003

Awarded Alstom a contract worth over $420 million for maintenance of 434 EMD SD70MAC diesel- electric freight locomotives over a 12-year period at BNSF's Alliance, Neb., shops. BNSF employees will perform the work under Alstom management. The BNSF contract is Alstom's first locomotive maintenance contract of this size with a U.S.

Class I railroad, Alstom currently operates five contract locomotive maintenance and/or overhaul facilities in North America. Four are in Mexico: Monterrey, Mexico City, Valle de Mexico, and Xalapa; these facilities serve TFM, Ferromex, FerroSur, and TFVM (Mexico City's terminal railroad). Alstom also operates Canadian Pacific's Calgary, Canada, locomotive shop, with CP shop workers and Alstom supervisors. For BNSF, Alstom will utilize its Conditioned Based Maintenance method, which it says "is based mainly on the performance and reliability analysis of each piece of equipment and each sub-system. This technique will enable BNSF to achieve substantia l savings on its maintenance costs."