Excellent Story At The Bismarck Tribune On BNSF Efforts To Improve Service

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting, from Ross, North Dakota:

If that weren’t enough for a town with dirt streets that are rutted and ragged — partly because oil workers have swelled the population from 50 people to 600 — the railroad is laying new track alongside town.

The project is its most ambitious expansion here since the days when the railroad was built with steam shovels and men swinging pick axes.
A second, side-by-side track will double BNSF’s capacity between Minot and Glendive, Mont., and hopefully unclog congestion, at least through the Bakken.

The railway’s been under some pressure to get better service to elevators to move grain out and fertilizer in. It reported this month that it was still running an average of 26 days late.

It’s investing $620 million along the northern corridor route to improve that schedule. Sections of the new track will be usable this year and all of it will be by next year, said BNSF spokeswoman Amy Mcbeth.

Overall, BNSF invested $4 billion in expansion and maintenance last year and $5 billion this year, exceeding any historical investments in the industry by any railroad, she said.