(The following article by Rodd Cayton was posted on the Lincoln Journal Star website on January 29.)
LINCOLN, Neb. — BNSF Railway Co. will expand its Lincoln rail yard and add about 50 miles of double- and triple-track in Nebraska and on the Powder River Basin Joint Line in Wyoming, as part of a $2.4 billion capital commitment program for 2006.
Multiplication of track allows more than one train to travel through an area at the same time, said BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg.
The railroad also will improve diesel fueling facilities in Nebraska and expand capacity nationwide, as well as acquire 310 locomotives at a cost of about $550 million.
Forsberg wouldn’t comment on what the railroad is spending locally, but Lancaster County property records show that BNSF had a $1.9 million building permit approved for a fuel tank farm.
BNSF said it has hired more than 500 people in Lincoln since the start of 2004., including about 300 train crewmen and 200 in its mechanical and engineering departments,
That hiring has been necessary because of attrition and expansion, Forsberg said.
The railroad currently employs about 1,700 people in Lincoln and about 4,500 statewide.
Improvements in Lincoln are driven by increased coal traffic, and to a lesser extent, higher demand to move grain and mixed freight, said Forsberg. .
BNSF earlier said it would hire about 70 people for its Lincoln operation for 2006, and that the number of trains going through Lincoln would increase by six to eight percent a year for the next three years.
Forsberg said between 85 and almost 100 trains go through Lincoln daily.
BNSF says traffic in Lincoln was up 16 percent for the 12 months ending in October of 2005, versus the prior year.
The most visible improvements at Lincoln’s Hobson Yard, south of West O Street, will be additional fueling platforms, each of which is capable of fueling four locomotives at once.
The Lincoln improvements are part of a systemwide upgrade for the railroad. The investment caps a three year program for BNSF, which is upgrading in 28 states and two Canadian provinces.
In Lincoln alone since 2004, said Forsberg, BNSF has extended two fueling tracks, added a mile-long third mainline track, and made other substantial investments in its Lincoln infrastructure.
“We have also begun construction of two new fuel pads for four of our existing tracks to decrease to time it takes to fuel locomotives on our coal trains,” Forsberg said.
The improvements not only allow BNSF to move more coal trains, said Forsberg, but the railroad has also begun moving some coal trains that normally go through Kansas City, Mo. and Alliance to Lincoln, to take some of pressure off those terminals.
The railroad is expanding one of its four existing fueling platforms and will add a fifth, plus a diesel tank farm, said Forsberg. They’ll be tall, cylindrical and brightly colored, he said, and will sit near the main tracks.
BNSF’s expansion is not in conflict with a proposed sports and entertainment arena proposed for the Haymarket area, said Forsberg.
Lincoln City Councilman Ken Svoboda said he views BNSF’s expansion in Lincoln as a good thing, but he wants to make sure it produces the lowest amount of traffic congestion. He also wants the railroad to continue recent efforts to eliminate as many at-grade crossings as possible.
Svoboda represents the council on the Railroad Transportation Safety District board.
“Anytime there’s an expansion of operations, there are more jobs and more revenue to the city,” said Svoboda. “Lincoln is recognized as a good place to do business.”
BNSF, Svoboda said, has eliminated most of its train traffic through the city, but Lincoln is growing around the railroad.
Svoboda said significant reduction in the number of at-grade crossings has cut down on the number of complaints the safety district fields abouut trains slowing down vehicular traffic.
“We used to get a lot of complaints,” he said. “Construction (in 2003) of the A street overpass took care of most of them.”
“If they need to expand, we need to try to accommodate them,” he said. “As I would with any business operation in Lincoln.”
Reach Rodd Cayton at 473-7107 or rcayton@journalstar.com.
BNSF Railway Co. in Lincoln
Locations:
Nebraska Division headquarters, 201 N. 7th St.
Hobson Yard, 801 W. O St.
Havelock Shops, 6600 Burlington Ave.
Number of local employees: about 1,700, in Nebraska, 4,500.
In Lincoln since: The Burlington & Missouri River Rail Road (that’s how they spelled it), the first BNSF predecessor line in this part of the state, reached Lincoln in 1870.