California Matters to BNSF

BNSF Railway’s roots run deep in California, back to the 1880’s and the completion of the Railroad via Needles to link the Golden State to the nation, eventually helping grow California’s economy to the sixth largest in the world.

For more information on BNSF’s efforts in California, please visit www.CommunitiesMatter.com

Delivering the Goods that Americas Use Everyday

Today, BNSF serves the busiest ports in the nation at Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Oakland, delivering a wide variety of consumer products including packaged goods, clothes, appliances, electronics, and automobiles from California ports to retailers and manufacturers across the nation. Serving these international ports helped make BNSF the world leader in intermodal transportation (truck trailers or containers).

BNSF also helps California farmers feed the nation by transporting tomatoes, potatoes, onions, apples and other agricultural products to supermarkets around the country on our vast 32,000-mile network. As trains return to California, they deliver grain from the Midwest and manufacturing-based products from every corner of the nation for use in the Golden State and for export abroad.

Our Ethanol Express train brings ethanol from the nation’s heartland, supplying Californians with cleaner fuels for their automobiles. And we help the state’s economy grow by delivering building materials from across the country for use in construction throughout the state, raw materials for use in manufacturing, and fertilizers to help grow California crops.

Investing in the Future of California

BNSF operates a 2,000-mile network in California, reaching all parts of the state and linking industries in Southern California to those in the North. And we maintain key operating hubs in nine California cities including intermodal hubs in Fresno, Richmond, San Bernardino, Stockton, and Los Angeles.

In all, BNSF moves more than 4 million carloads of freight in California annually. BNSF continually looks for ways to make already environmentally friendly freight rail transportation even cleaner, including the use of new cleaner-burning, fuel-efficient locomotives. Our locomotives can move a ton of freight more than 400 miles on one gallon of fuel. And we are equipping our track switches, which direct our trains from one track to another, with solar power.

Supporting BNSF’s network in California are more than 3,500 dedicated men and women who earn a combined payroll of more than $245 million. In 2006, BNSF hired more than 400 new employees to fill existing and newly created positions in California.

In addition, the BNSF Foundation plays an active role in multiple communities within the state, and contributed nearly $400,000 in donations to various charities in 2006 alone.