ASLRRA Selects BNSF to Provide Technical Training For Short Line Railroad Employees

(2005-04-10)

BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) today announced at the ASLRRA annual meeting and convention that BNSF will be the provider of choice for technical training for all short line railroad employees whose railroads are members of the ASLRRA.

Training will be administered through the National Academy of Railroad Sciences (NARS), a part of BNSF’s Technical Training Center in Overland Park, Kansas, and will include classroom instruction, simulated practice, computer-based training, Web-based training and distance learning. Potentially, more than 20,000 employees annually from more than 400 short line and regional railroads will be trained in virtually every craft, including locomotive engineer, conductor, yard crew, mechanical, maintenance, engineering, signal systems and telecommunications. For additional information on NARS, go to www.RailroadTraining.com.

"We are pleased to provide the ASLRRA and its member short line and regional railroads with the highest level of academic and technical training excellence," says Matthew K. Rose, BNSF chairman, president and CEO. "The railroad industry has made a concerted effort to adopt similar best practices and rule requirements in an effort to operate safely. BNSF is proud to have taken a leadership role in these developments and to share them with the rest of the industry."

"Short line and regional railroads are held to the same regulatory requirements as Class One railroads," says Richard Timmons, ASLRRA president. "And partnership with NARS provides our members with easy access to training modules that cover regulatory requirements for virtually every craft. The benefits from a safety and professional skills standpoint are enormous."

BNSF’s Technical Training Center provides training to BNSF’s 38,000 employees via the classroom, laboratory, simulator, distance learning and computer-based training. In 2004, more than 3300 new BNSF employees and 1525 existing employees received training at the 120,000-square-foot facility in Overland Park, Kansas. Another 18,000 BNSF employees receive field training each year. Through a partnership with the Johnson County Community College (JCCC), BNSF also provides the curriculum for the National Academy of Railroad Sciences, which offers a variety of degrees in railroad sciences and provides technical training to Alaska Rail, RailAmerica, Inc., and Kansas City Southern.

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) is a non-profit trade association that represents the interests of its more than 400 short line and regional railroad members in legislative and regulatory matters. Short line and regional railroads are an important and growing component of the railroad industry. Today, they operate and maintain 29 percent of the American railroad industry's route mileage, and account for 9 percent of the rail industry's freight revenue and 11 percent of railroad employment.

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF Railway operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with about 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian provinces. The railway is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, transports the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough low-sulphur coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. BNSF Railway is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.




For more information on the company and its transportation solutions, visit the BNSF Web site at www.bnsf.com

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000