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News Release

 

BNSF Railway Asks Rail Fans for Cooperation To Keep America's Rail System Safe

 

FORT WORTH, TEXAS, June 7, 2006:

 

BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) is recruiting rail fans to help keep BNSF properties safe by reporting suspicious activities and to help prevent possible security breaches.

“Keeping America’s rail transportation network safe from crime and terrorist activity is a high priority for the railroad industry,” says William Heileman, BNSF general director, Police and Protection Solutions. “Every day across the country, rail fans photograph and watch trains as they pass through communities. It seems natural to harness their interest to help keep America’s rail system safe.”

Rail fans can register for the program by going to the Citizens United for Rail Security (CRS) Web site (http://newdomino.bnsf.com/website/crs.nsf/request?open). CRS participants will receive an official identification card along with access to news and information on the BNSF CRS Web site.

To report suspicious activity, CRS members and the public can call (800) 832-5452. The information will be taken by a BNSF representative and routed for appropriate response.

“Supporting homeland security in this manner is positive for everyone," says Carl Ice, BNSF’s executive vice president and chief operations officer. "It supports the nation's security efforts, improves safety within our company and the community, and improves operations by helping to remove the impact of criminal acts and accidents."

The CRS program is an outgrowth of another BNSF grassroots program, called BNSF ON GUARD, which encourages employees to report suspicious activities, trespassers or individuals to BNSF’s Resource Operations Call Center (ROCC). The BNSF ON GUARD program, which started in 2003, has been successful, with more than 200 employees reporting suspicious activities since its inception. Employees have reported theft, vandalism, arson, attempted suicide, and other criminal violations, threats to safety, or unusual events on or near railway properties.

“Security is everyone’s business. Because of heightened security status, Americans are being asked to be the ‘eyes and ears’ for law enforcement," says John Clark, BNSF assistant vice president, Resource Protection Solutions Team. "At BNSF, our police team continues to educate employees on work, personal and home security, as well as working to change employee behavior to increase awareness of security risks."

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF Railway Company operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, 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, 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 is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.

BNSF Headquarters

BNSF Railway Company

2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor

P.O. Box 961057

Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057

Phone: (817) 352-1000

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For the record, I think all railfans have secretly always been out to get writers anyway, having the inside scoop on another railroad, I happen to know that th eother railroads regard railfans as just as much a hazard to their system as writers.

 

I think at the same time, if the railroads had the time or money, more writers would be gettin nabbed and more pieces buffed. Just be safe like usual people.

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...i wouldn't jump to the conclusion that BNSF is trying to do this to catch writers...this is a publicity stunt to show how serious they are about homeland security...i mean, c'mon, a task force of rail fans?...what the hell are they going to report?...that the 303 was twenty minutes late rolling through their spot yesterday?...or maybe that there was a door open on a boxcar?...this is a joke...skirmfirm noted it nicely, all these losers want is an ID card...

 

 

...ps...i'm sooo signing up for this...

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If this is not some sort of publicity stunt scam about Homeland Security, this would be a definate change in BNSF's attitude towards rail fans. They have the absolutely correct idea however. The foamers definately have the right sort of obsessive-compulsive attitude to make good railroad informers and they are usually well-equipped for the job, with cell phones, scanners, digital cameras and DV video cameras.

 

There is a movement within the hobo community (well, within TU 63 anyway) to try and get the railroad Special Agents to understand that hobos and tramps are perfectly positioned to watch for terrorist acts against the railroad. Most tramps have nothing but respect for the railroad and the railroad workers, and would turn in a saboteur in a New York second.

 

The Special Agents still have a sort of "no tolerance, lock-em-up" attitude about rail riders, however, and I'm sure the idea of tramps as intelligence gatherers will be a hard sell. The tramps have a positive attitude towards railroad workers though, and regardless of the Special Agents' attitudes, they will watch for terrorist acts anyway.

 

Somewhat like the foamers, though, I think the tramps and hobos long to have an "official" connection to the railroads, sort of like an official wink and a nod that their lifestyle of riding trains is officially permitted by the railroads. They're not looking for a paycheck, mind you--just some acknowledgement and a little respect.

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