As our neighboring communities continue to grow and our system receives significant rainfall, BNSF focuses on adaptation and resilience of our stormwater infrastructure and systems operations. For each new or replacement bridge project, we conduct hydraulic analyses to assess flood impacts and size our bridges, culverts and track elevation appropriately.

Wildfires
BNSF has had wildfire response plans and equipment positioned throughout our system to protect our critical infrastructure for many years. With an increase in wildfire risk both in frequency and severity, our wildfire program has been expanded significantly. Today, we have more than 50 wildfire response tank cars and infrastructure protection trailers along our network. We remove trees and brush surrounding critical infrastructure to eliminate wildfire fuel. We also have developed Infrastructure Wildfire Protection plans for BNSF’s critical bridges, tunnels and snowsheds.

Helping to Reduce Customer Carbon Emissions

By using rail to transport goods, our customers are able to reduce their environmental impact while remaining competitive in the market. Rail, in fact, is the most environmentally efficient mode of surface transportation. Consider: railroads handle 40% of the nation’s long-distance freight volume, yet account for only 0.5% of total U.S. GHG emissions and only 1.8% of the transportation related emission sources, according to the U.S. EPA. According to the AAR, if 10% of the freight shipped by the largest trucks were moved by rail instead, greenhouse gas emissions would fall by nearly 20 million tons annually.

Developing an Innovative New Facility

In 2024, BNSF continued development of the 4,500-acre Barstow International Gateway (BIG). BIG will be a uniquely integrated operation, consisting of a rail yard, intermodal facility and warehouses for transloading freight from international containers to domestic continers. The facility will allow, for the first time, the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to trains headed to BNSF’s mainline. Containers will be processed using zero- and near-zero emission cargo-handling equipment. BIG has the potential to significantly improve network fluidity and efficiency, meaningfully reduce carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs.

Our Commitment to Our Climate and Communities

Sustainable development is a cornerstone of our sustainability strategy. As a growing railroad, we are focused on developing our operations sustainably with respect to the environment, the communities in which we live and operate and our business. In 2023, BNSF executed a deep dive into our development project processes and established a company-specific playbook. The playbook encompasses the complete process of a BNSF project, from project planning, site selection, design and construction to operation and maintenance. We measure sustainable development throughout the project by its impact on and by the community, project management, efficient resource allocation, natural world conservation, and climate and resiliency. The vision for our playbook is for BNSF project owners and teams to develop sites that provide business value while minimizing environmental impacts and improving community engagement.

• Community
• Project management
• Efficient resource allocation
• Natural world conservation
• Climate and resiliency

In 2024, BNSF focused on awareness through virtual training and in-person workshops covering sustainability topics across our network to promote implementation of the playbook. We continue to work to identify areas of efficiency and opportunity and integrate sustainability measures in current processes and planning.

Investing in Remediation

We actively address environmental impacts at legacy sites – locations where predecessor railroads and others may have conducted operations for up to a century. In the last decade, we have rehabilitated approximately 100 sites and invested approximately $230 million toward remediation efforts.