BNSF Railway, denoted by the reporting mark BNSF, is recognized as the most extensive freight railroad in the United States. It is among the six North American Class I railroads, with a workforce comprising 36,000 employees. The company operates on approximately 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track spanning 28 states and employs over 8,000 locomotives. BNSF oversees three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the eastern and western regions of the United States. Notably, in 2010, BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles (272 million kilometers), which was the highest of any other North American railroad. 

 

The BNSF Railway Company is the leading operating subsidiary of its parent company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. The parent company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., which is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The company's headquarters are located in Fort Worth, Texas, and its current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Kathryn Farmer. 

 

BNSF Railway is acknowledged as one of North America's top intermodal freight transporters, according to corporate press releases. The company also hauls bulk cargo, including coal. 

 

BNSF's creation dates back to September 22, 1995, when a holding company was established. This new holding company acquired the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway (often referred to as the "Santa Fe") and Burlington Northern Railroad, which were formally merged into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996. On January 24, 2005, the railway's name was officially changed to BNSF Railway Company, using the initials of its original name. 

 

On November 3, 2009, Berkshire Hathaway announced that it would purchase the remaining 77.4 percent of BNSF it did not already own for $100 per share in cash and stock, which was valued at $44 billion. The company invested an estimated $34 billion in BNSF and acquired $10 billion in debt. On February 12, 2010, shareholders of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation voted in favor of the acquisition.

BNSF and its chief competitor, the Union Pacific Railroad, have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern, and Southern United States and share trackage rights over thousands of miles.

 

BNSF is a railway company with a long history. It was created in 1849 when the Aurora Branch Railroad and the Pacific Railroad of Missouri were formed by a group of millers who wanted to build a 12-mile railway that connected Aurora with the Galena & Chicago Union Rail Road. The Aurora Branch eventually became the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), which was a significant part of successor Burlington Northern. A portion of the Pacific Railroad became the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco).

 

The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) was chartered in 1859 and built one of the first transcontinental railroads in North America, linking Chicago and Southern California. Significant branches led to Texas, Denver, and San Francisco. The proposed merger with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company was denied by the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 1980s.

 

The Burlington Northern Railroad (B.N.) was created in 1970 through the consolidation of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, the Great Northern Railway, the Northern Pacific Railway, and the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle Railway. It absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco) in 1980. Its main lines included Chicago-Seattle with branches to Texas (ex-Burlington) and Birmingham, Alabama (ex-Frisco), and access to the low-sulfur coal of Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

 

On June 30, 1994, B.N. and ATSF announced plans to merge. They were the most significant and minor (by track mileage) of the "Super Seven," the seven most significant of the then-twelve U.S. Class I railroads. The long-rumored announcement was delayed by a disagreement over the disposition of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation, a gold mining subsidiary that ATSF agreed to sell to stockholders. This announcement began the next wave of mergers, as the "Super Seven" were merged down to four in the next five years.

 

On July 19, The Illinois Central Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) announced that the former would buy the latter. However, this plan was called off on October 25. On October 5, the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) started a bidding war with B.N. for control of the S.F. The UP gave up on January 31, 1995, paving the way for the BN-ATSF merger. 

 

On February 7, 1995, B.N. and ATSF head Gerald Grinstein and Robert D. Krebs announced that shareholders had approved the plan. The merger aimed to save overhead costs and combine B.N.'s coal and ATSF's intermodal strengths. Although the two systems complemented each other with little overlap, unlike the Santa Fe-Southern Pacific merger, which failed because it would have eliminated competition in many areas of the Southwest, B.N. and ATSF came to agreements with most other Class I's to keep them from opposing the merger. 

 

UP was satisfied with a single segment of trackage rights from Abilene, Kansas, to Superior, Nebraska, which B.N. and ATSF had both served. KCS gained haulage rights to several Midwest locations, including Omaha, East St. Louis, and Memphis, in exchange for BNSF getting similar access to New Orleans. 

 

S.P., initially requesting far-reaching trackage rights throughout the West, soon agreed on a reduced plan. S.P. acquired trackage rights on ATSF for intermodal and automotive traffic to Chicago, and other trackage rights on ATSF in Kansas, south to Texas, and between Colorado and Texas. In exchange, S.P. assigned BNSF trackage rights over the former Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad between El Paso and Topeka and haulage rights to the Mexican border at Eagle Pass, Texas. 

 

Regional Toledo, Peoria, and Western Railway also obtained trackage rights over B.N. from Peoria to Galesburg, Illinois. In this B.N. hub, it could interchange with S.P. (which had rights on B.N. dating from 1990). The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) approved the BNSF merger on July 20, 1995 (with final approval on August 23), less than a month before UP announced on August 3 that it would acquire SP. 

 

Parents Burlington Northern Inc. and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation were acquired on September 22, 1995, by the new Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation. The merger of the operating companies was held up by issues with unions. ATSF merged on December 31, 1996, into B.N., which was renamed the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company.

The merger between Union Pacific and Southern Pacific resulted in the expansion of the combined network of BNSF. However, unlike B.N. and ATSF, UP and S.P. had a significant overlap, which created a potential risk of monopoly for freight transportation throughout the West. In response, UP and BNSF entered into an agreement where BNSF would not oppose the merger in exchange for the ownership of 335 miles (539 km) of line and approximately 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of trackage rights to reach these "two-to-one" shippers. This allowed BNSF to acquire significant rights over S.P.'s Central Corridor from Denver via the Moffat Tunnel and Salt Lake City and over Donner Pass to the San Francisco Bay Area, with an alternate route through the Feather River Canyon along UP.

 

In California's Central Valley, the ATSF trackage was connected to B.N.'s line into Oregon through trackage rights over UP between Stockton and Keddie, and the acquisition of UP's section of the "Inside Gateway" to the beginning of B.N. trackage at Bieber. In Texas, BNSF received rights in several directions from the Houston area, including west over UP to San Antonio, with a branch to Waco, and continuing over S.P. to Eagle Pass (replacing the haulage rights they had just obtained); south over UP to Brownsville; east over S.P. to New Orleans (including the purchase of this line east of Lake Charles); and northeast over S.P. to Memphis with a branch on UP to Little Rock. Ownership of a short connection between Waxahachie and Dallas also went from UP to BNSF.

 

In return, UP received a few short sections of trackage rights over BNSF, mainly connecting the S.P. at Chemult to the UP at Bend, Oregon, and connecting the S.P. at Mojave, California with existing UP rights on ATSF at Barstow, California. On April 18, 1996, UP, BNSF, and the Chemical Manufacturers Association entered into an agreement giving BNSF rights over the UP line between Houston and East St. Louis, paralleling the Houston-Memphis SP line, and allowing BNSF to participate in the UP's plan for directional running, where each line would serve through trains in only one direction.

 

The Surface Transportation Board, successor to the ICC, approved the UP-SP merger on July 3, and UP control of S.P. took effect on September 11, 1996. BNSF trackage rights operations began on the Central Corridor on October 10, and soon after on other lines. BNSF continued projects initiated by its predecessors, most notably B.N.'s work on reopening Stampede Pass. B.N. had closed Stampede Pass, the main line of Northern Pacific Railway across Washington, in 1984, in favor of the ex-Great Northern Railway's Stevens Pass. B.N. never abandoned the line and began rehabilitating it in early 1996, and the route reopened in early December, relieving the crowded Stevens Pass.

 

Moreover, the Southern Transcon, commonly known as the ex-ATSF mainline, has undergone consistent modifications to augment the number of tracks, thereby providing BNSF with additional capacity on this critical intermodal route.

 

In December 1999, BNSF Railway and Canadian National Railway unveiled their plans to merge and establish a new holding company, North American Railways. This new entity would have overseen around 50,000 miles of railroad, facilitating increased cash for capacity improvements and more extensive single-system movements. However, stakeholders and the Surface Transportation Board raised concerns and were taken aback by the timing of the merger. As a result, the STB imposed a 15-month moratorium on mergers between any two Class I railroads, citing widespread opposition to the merger and its potential impact.

 

Promptly, BNSF and CN appealed to the US Court of Appeals, which ruled on July 14th that the STB's authority to regulate mergers allowed for a moratorium. Subsequently, the two railways decided to abandon the merger. In June 2001, the STB issued its final rules, mandating that any new application to merge two Class I railroads, except for the smaller Kansas City Southern Railway, must demonstrate that competition would be preserved, and the effects of defensive moves by other carriers must be addressed. No further Class I mergers occurred until April 2023 when the merger between Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific was authorized, creating the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation was incorporated in 1993 to facilitate the merger of Burlington Northern, Incorporated, and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation, which owned the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe). The merger was completed on September 22, 1995, and the resulting companies became wholly owned subsidiaries of BNSF. In January 1998, the intermediate holding company was absorbed into the railroad after the two holding companies and two railroads were officially merged in December 1996.

 

Robert D. Krebs, formerly the president of Santa Fe Pacific, served as the president of BNSF from the merger until 1999, as the chief executive from the merger until 2000, and as the chairman from 1997 until 2002. He was followed in all three roles by Matthew K. Rose.

 

On November 3, 2009, Berkshire Hathaway tendered a $26 billion offer to acquire the remaining 77.4% of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation that it did not already own, valuing the purchase at $34 billion, inclusive of its previous investment and the $10 billion assumed Burlington Northern debt. The acquisition was finalized on February 12, 2010, and stands as the largest in Berkshire Hathaway's history.

 

The agreement was structured so that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation would combine with and into R Acquisition Company, LLC, which is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The merged company was renamed Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC, which remains an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.