Coal Network Update for Friday, April 8, 2022

Date
Apr 8, 2022

Operational Performance
Our service recovery program remains ongoing as BNSF operating teams focus on aligning resources with freight volumes effectively. While some progress was made this week in reducing backlogs at our merchandise and intermodal terminals on the eastern side of our network, we continued to confront challenges in generating significant overall velocity, inventory level and fluidity improvement.

As we reported, we are taking actions to reduce active railcar inventory levels on the network to create the additional capacity needed for quicker service restoration. We will continue to work with private car owners as well as our system fleet managers to make these temporary reductions.

We are addressing power availability issues in some areas of the network by continuing to deploy additional locomotives. This month, BNSF’s active fleet is increasing by an additional 100 locomotives, with our Mechanical shops working full overtime to repair locomotives and return them to train operations faster.

Our plan to hire approximately 1,000 additional train crew personnel remains on pace. In addition to offering large monetary incentives for new hires in some locations, we are also centralizing some training to expedite their availability.

Service Expectations for the Week Ahead
Our peak track maintenance season is in full swing with all 28 of our capital maintenance gangs now out on the network. Their work is essential to keep our network infrastructure in optimal condition. With various projects, including track and/or rail tie replacement underway in multiple areas, we continue to work to minimize the intermittent delays that occur where crews are active.

As always, we thank you for your business and appreciate the opportunity to serve as your transportation service provider. We welcome your feedback and questions.