FORT WORTH, TX -- (Marketwire) -- 09/22/09 -- BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) today said that North Central Texas Council of Governments' (NCTCOG) application for a $61 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant for the Tower 55 At-grade Improvement Project will have a significant impact on improving freight mobility and the economy in Texas.

Located near downtown Fort Worth, Texas, Tower 55 is one of the busiest at-grade railroad intersections in the United States with more than 100 freight and passenger trains passing through each day.

If granted, this project would bring public benefits in excess of $695 million, create several hundred construction jobs, and put more than $130 million into the local economy. Construction could begin in 2010 and be completed by 2012.

This project would allow Tower 55 to accommodate at least 40 percent more rail volume than is currently moving today, and do so with less delay and congestion that the region has experienced in recent years. Due to its regional and national significance, the project was recently rated by a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) organized selection committee as the highest priority TIGER project in Texas, compared with more than 90 other projects in the second most populous state in the nation.

"On behalf of BNSF, I want to thank all of the business and community leaders and public officials who have worked so hard in support of this project," said Matthew K. Rose, BNSF chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We appreciate Transportation Director Michael Morris and the North Central Texas Council of Governments' leadership in finding ways to immediately reduce air emissions and congestion while also creating jobs and improving the economy. We would also like to commend U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison; Congresspeople Michael Burgess and Kay Granger; and TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz for their support of this project. Their vision will help ensure Texas will remain one of the most efficient and competitive freight transportation markets in the nation. Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Gary Ridley should also be commended for his support and recognition of the project's benefits beyond Texas."

Additional support for stimulus funds for Tower 55 was provided by the following:

--  Texas State Senators John Carona, Wendy Davis, Jane Nelson, Florence
    Shapiro and Kirk Watson
--  Texas Representatives Lon Burnam, Charlie Geren, Mark Shelton, Vicki
    Truitt and Marc Veasey
--  Mayor Mike Moncrief, City of Fort Worth
--  Glen Whitley, County Judge, Tarrant County
--  Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce
--  Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
--  Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition
    

"It is through projects like Tower 55 and the tremendous support from the community that will allow the United States to create and sustain the pre-eminent surface transportation system in the world," Rose said.

About BNSF Railway Company

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