BNSF expands guaranteed carload service - Rail Update - Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co - Brief Article

Railway Age, Jan, 2003

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe has expanded its guaranteed on-time carload rail service from two to seven lanes with three additional lanes from the Pacific Northwest to Arizona, Northern California, and Southern California, and two from Northern and Southern California to the Midwest. These supplement the two lanes opened in October covering Pacific Northwest/Midwest and Pacific Northwest/Texas service.

BNSF's service guarantee allows shippers to purchase, for a premium, a guarantee for ontime carload rail service in these lanes. It includes a 100% refund for each load that arrives after the agreed-upon transit time at the customer's location. BNSF measures ontime performance from the time a customer releases the car to the time it is spotted at the customer's dock.