FORT WORTH, TX -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 10/26/2006 -- BNSF Railway Company honored three of its short-line connections with Short-Line Achievement Awards at BNSF's eleventh annual Short-Line Conference October 16 in Fort Worth. Pete Rickershauser, BNSF's vice president -- Network Development, presented awards to:

--  Big Horn Divide and Wyoming Railroad of Riverton, Wyo.
--  Northern Lines Railway of St. Cloud, Minn.
--  Red River Valley and Western Railroad of Wahpeton, N.D.
    

"All of our short line connections have played a role in our joint success in 2006," said Pete Rickershauser, BNSF's vice president, Network Development, who introduced the Achievement Award recipients. "These awards recognize the resourcefulness and achievements of three short lines that have gone beyond our expectations through innovation, determination and hard work."

About 200 people attended the conference, which featured discussions on BNSF's network development, service and marketing plans for 2007 and how short lines fit into those plans. Discussions were led by Carl Ice, executive vice president and chief operations officer; John Lanigan, executive vice president and chief marketing officer; and other members of the BNSF leadership team. Matt Rose, chairman, president and chief executive officer, hosted a dinner and discussed the state of the U.S. railroad industry.

"Short lines provide an intense customer focus, resourcefulness, operational flexibility, and a local presence in their communities," said Rickershauser. "We see their role expanding in the future as they do more gathering and distribution, and aggregate blocks of cars for integration with BNSF's network of main-line trains."

BNSF connects with more than 200 short lines, regional carriers and switch carriers. They operate almost 19,000 miles of track. Through September of this year, BNSF shipments that originated or terminated on short lines accounted for about 17.5 percent of BNSF revenues. Of BNSF revenues attributed to shipments originating or terminating on short lines, 48 percent were Industrial Products commodities while 24 percent were Agricultural and related products.

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