FORT WORTH, Texas & KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company and Kansas City Southern today announced the signing of an agreement forming a comprehensive joint Marketing Alliance that would promote cooperation, revenue growth and extend market reach for both railroads in the United States and Canada.
According to a press release issued by the two companies, the Marketing Alliance would also improve operating efficiencies for both carriers in key market areas, as well as provide customers with expanded service options.
BNSF and KCS will coordinate marketing and operations initiatives in a number of target markets. The two carriers are developing plans to enhance competitive options for shippers in the West Lake and West Lake Charles, Louisiana, region. Similarly, BNSF and KCS will also coordinate operations to provide improved and extended service options for grain shippers and receivers. More broadly, the Alliance will allow BNSF and KCS to be more responsive to shippers’ requests for rates and service, whenever mutually advantageous, throughout the two rail networks. Coal and unit train operations are excluded from the Alliance, as well as any points where BNSF and KCS are the only direct rail competitors.
BNSF and KCS also announced the resolution of a number of operational issues that will further enhance coordination and efficiencies between the two carriers.
“The complementary, end-to-end nature of the KCS and BNSF networks, together with our mutual customer focus and development of interline service products, makes this Alliance the basis for a natural partnership,” said Matt Rose, Chairman, President and CEO, BNSF. “We intend to use it to drive profitable growth to our railways.”
“The combined resources of BNSF and KCS will provide both railroads with expanded access to important markets, while at the same time shippers will gain enhanced options and competitive alternatives,” stated Michael Haverty, Chairman, CEO and President, KCS.
Through its subsidiary, The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company, BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a wide variety of customer transactions. The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world and is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad.
KCS is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the United States, Mexico, and Panama. Its primary holding is the Kansas City Southern Railway, which is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, and serves customers in the central and south central regions of the U.S. KCS’s rail holdings and investments are primary components of a NAFTA railway system that links the commercial and industrial centers of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.