FORT WORTH, Texas — The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) and Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NS) announced a plan to introduce a new coast-to-coast carload service assurance program for temperature-controlled commodities moving from selected cities in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), to the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. The service will begin December 1, 2002.
With the program, shippers can purchase service assurance for a $500 premium. For each load of freight that does not reach its destination on time, BNSF and NS will reimburse shippers double their premium ($1,000).
“We designed the program to attract shippers who have been reluctant to ship by rail in the past,” says Steve Branscum, BNSF group vice president, Consumer Products Business Unit. “Consistency and speed are critical for shippers moving temperature-controlled commodities. And as we’ve continued to meet our on-time goals in these lanes, we simply felt it was time to offer shippers an incentive to try rail.”
“This new partnership allows NS and BNSF to offer some of the fastest transit times in the industry for perishable rail shipments to destinations throughout the East,” says Don Seale, Norfolk Southern’s senior vice president, Merchandise Marketing. “It capitalizes on a renewed commitment by BNSF and NS to service consistency and reliability for food and consumer shipments.”
Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC – News) is one of America’s leading transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway Company subsidiary operates approximately 21,500 miles of road in 22 states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, serving every major container port in the eastern United States and providing superior connections to western rail carriers. NS operates the East’s most extensive intermodal network and is the nation’s largest rail carrier of automotive parts and finished vehicles. For more information, visit Norfolk Southern’s web site at www.nscorp.com .
A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE: BNI – News), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com . The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, transports the mineral components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough coal to generate more than 10 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.