Burlington Northern Update -- Staggering

Background

BNI

BR

Think: a) huge shipping volumes; b) mainline along US Highway 2; c) natural gas processing and refueling station at the Minot BNSF yard; d) a petrochemical plant in Minot because BNSF is there to transport finished products. 

Updates

June 7, 2013: if the BNSF natural gas test is a success, it would be very interesting to see if BNSF might locate a natural gas processing plant at the Minot yard for refueling. It's very possible BNSF could become a much bigger entity in North Dakota before this is all over. So much of this is dependent on an adequate work force, and as jobs become available, fewer young people will leave the state for greener pastures elsewhere.

June 7, 2013: there is talk that Burlington Northern will upgrade its track along US-2 (Williston - Minot - Fargo - Minneapolis - Chicago) to a mainline track. Personal communication. No link.

However, this story in ConstructionEquipmentGuide provides some interesting data points, dated December 22, 2013:

An increase in growth and traffic numbers in Minot, N.D., have made it necessary to create a bypass on the northeast corner of the city starting at County Road 12, just north of Highway 2, an east/west route, and continuing to U.S. Highway 83, a main thoroughfare and north/south route.

The project also includes the construction of an overpass over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks on Highway 55 between Highway 2 and County Road 12, on the south end of the project.

The project was developed five years ago with the intention to keep major traffic out of the downtown area, said Jeff McElwain, project engineer of Ackerman-Eastvold Engineering, the project coordinator.

Original Post

I grew up with Burlington Northern. I remember "racing" my car through the rail yards / grain elevators on the south side of Williston, to evade ... whatever needed evading.... but that was long ago, in a faraway place ... but I grew up with Burlington Northern ... Great Northern before that... and it was one of the first companies I invested in when I first started buying shares in individual companies back in 1984 .... I'm glad to see BNSF continues to put out press releases.

Don sent me two.

First:

BNSF Railway's economic development team worked with customers and state and local economic development organizations to locate hundreds of new or expanded facilities in communities across BNSF's network in 2012, generating approximately $1.8 billion in new investment and over 6,200 new U.S. jobs in 23 states.

The 194 new and expanding facilities located on BNSF in 2012 included signature rail equipment manufacturing projects in Fort Worth, Texas and Rochelle, Illinois. Efforts in 2012 also included 44 projects to support the agricultural industry in 12 states, including 10 new grain shuttle facilities.

The expanding unconventional oil and gas industry continued as a major source of economic development projects for BNSF. As demand for crude oil from the various U.S. shale formations continues to rise, so do investments in new rail facilities. In response to this demand, last year the BNSF economic development team assisted customers in locating and completing five new crude oil unit train terminals in North Dakota and Montana. In addition, several new destination crude oil facilities were located in Washington, Missouri, Texas and Florida. These investments surpassed $300 million.

“2012 was a record year for BNSF economic development efforts. We broke our all-time job creation and project completion records and attained the second highest level of customer investment in our service territory.

And the second press release:

BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) today announced a planned 2013 capital commitment program of approximately $4.1 billion, approximately a $450 million increase over its 2012 capital spend of $3.6 billion.

The largest component of the capital plan is spending $2.3 billion on BNSF's core network and related assets. BNSF also plans to spend approximately $1 billion on locomotive, freight car and other equipment acquisitions. In addition, the program includes about $250 million for continued installation of federally mandated positive train control (PTC) and $550 million for terminal, line and intermodal expansion and efficiency projects. BNSF's expansion and efficiency projects will be primarily focused on capacity expansion to accommodate Bakken Shale related industrial products growth, intermodal terminal expansion, such as the completion of BNSF's Kansas City Intermodal Facility, and other terminal improvements to enhance productivity and velocity.

“This record capital plan continues our long-term focus on ensuring our network is prepared for the growing U.S. demand for freight rail,” said Matthew K. Rose, chairman and chief executive officer. “We are focused on investing to meet our customers' expectations and to expand capacity where growth is occurring. Given the importance of our low cost supply chain to the U.S. economy, our privately funded rail infrastructure is well positioned to ensure the U.S. ability to compete in global markets.”

Pretty incredible.