Frequently Asked Questions

To report suspicious behavior, call BNSF's Resource Operations Call Center at 800-832-5452 or your local police department.

BNSF has an internal police team that works closely with local, state and federal law enforcement on safety and security issues involving the railroad.

If there is a hazardous materials release on the track or near a rail facility, local authorities will advise the public if any special measures are necessary. If you personally see what you believe to be a hazardous materials release, first move to a safe location.

Then you should notify BNSF's Resource Operations Call Center or local police as soon as possible. The BNSF emergency number is 800-832-5452.

You should call BNSF's emergency number at 800-832-5452 to report any railroad emergency, including the false activation of gates and lights. This number will connect you directly to BNSF's Resource Operations Call Center, which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If your vehicle has stalled on a crossing, exit the vehicle immediately, move away from the track and call BNSF's emergency number at 800-832-5452 to report the stalled vehicle.

BNSF trains operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A wide range of factors can cause our trains’ trip schedules to change. Those conditions may be related to equipment, track or weather events. As a result of those changing conditions and for security reasons, freight train schedules are not released to the public.

Nonetheless, at BNSF we do our best to limit the amount of time any crossing is blocked on a mainline track. Our business and our customers depend on BNSF to keep our trains moving. When our trains experience a situation that forces them to stop BNSF works to correct or resolve the situation as quickly as possible to resume the safe movement of trains.

Most public rail crossings are equipped with passive rail crossing warning signs, such as crossbucks, yield signs, stop signs and pavement markings. Any change from passive warning devices to active warning devices is determined by individual state agencies and the appropriate road authorities, which typically involves the state’s department of transportation. Each state determines if it is appropriate to equip public rail crossings with active warning devices, such as gates and flashing lights.

Each state makes a determination on whether to use state or federal safety funds to help pay for the appropriate warning devices based upon the state's priority list of crossings for improvement. Once the location for a warning device is determined, the state reviews and approves the cost and enters into an agreement with the railroad to install the specified signals.

If you believe a railroad crossing near you is a good candidate for upgrading from a passive warning sign to an active warning, please contact your state’s department of transportation. BNSF works cooperatively with the states on our network to install active warning devices on the public crossings that the state has determined are in need of such upgrades.

Find more information in the Public Projects Manual.

Train horns save lives. The locomotive engineer has the responsibility and the discretion to sound the horn at specified times, or when a safety hazard is perceived. Too many Americans are killed each year while ignoring signals at grade crossings or while trespassing on railroad tracks. For background information about this problem, please visit the Operation Lifesaver website at www.oli.org.

Federal law requires the train crew when approaching a road crossing to sound the horn at all public crossings for the protection and safety of motorists and pedestrians regardless of whether crossings with gates and lights are present. Only crossings that have met Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) criteria for a Quiet Zone do not require the horn to be blown.

More details on our Train Horns page.

The decisions to build streets or highways at grade-level with the tracks were not made by the railroads but by the owners of the roadways crossing the track at any given location. In most cases that is a city or county.

When most communities built roads across rail lines, they had the option of building an overpass or underpass over, or under, the track. Most chose the less expensive option, which was to build the road at grade level with the tracks. Unfortunately, that leaves motorists in potential conflict with trains.

One of the great benefits of the federal interstate system is that there is not a single at-grade rail crossing on it. We are very much in favor of cities, counties and states pursuing similar improvements in public mobility for their roads and highways.

BNSF has a program to help eliminate crossings on our track, which actually pays communities to close crossings. Communities are free to use those dollars as they see fit.

In addition, in cases where construction of an overpass or underpass results in the closure of a crossing with gates and lights on it, the railroad involved is obligated by the federal government to pay for a portion (5 percent) of the construction of that overpass or underpass.

However, the decision to pursue such projects must be made by the owner of the road involved, not the railroad.

You can report a crossing in need of maintenance or repair to BNSF through our Contact Us form. Please provide details of the issue and the location including street, city and state.

You can report vegetation conditions or request information about pesticide use through our Contact Us form. Our Community Affairs team will direct your report to BNSF's Engineering Department, which is responsible for vegetation control.

You can find more information about potential careers and internships at BNSF, including a list of current openings, under the Work at BNSF tab on BNSF's website.

You can also visit our careers page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bnsfcareers.

Please check your junk mail folder and make sure your email service is set up to allow emails from BNSF into your inbox.

You can email Staff Recruiter and request assistance if you still don't locate the message.

BNSF helps connect freight shippers and consumers in the global marketplace. For more than 160 years, BNSF has played a vital role in building and serving the nation's economy by delivering many of the products we use every day:

• grain and other ingredients to produce the foods we eat,
• raw materials to build our homes and operate our businesses,
• finished electronics, clothing and consumer goods we use every day,
• low-sulfur coal used to generate more than 10 percent of the nation's electricity.

Operating one of America's largest railroad networks, BNSF connects the communities we serve to the rest of the country and the world. Learn more about what you can ship by rail.

Railroads are required by federal law to move hazardous materials. Most of these include products used by consumers every day such as paint, batteries, alcohol-containing products such as hand sanitizer and insect repellent, and household cleaning products.

The hazardous materials of greatest concern to emergency officials represent only about 0.3 percent of all rail shipments. BNSF helps train emergency responders across our system to ensure they are prepared to protect the public should such an emergency occur.

BNSF also has 160 emergency response personnel stationed around our network who are trained, equipped and prepared to monitor and respond to any emergency situation involving hazardous materials. More importantly, BNSF invests significant capital and effort working with our customers, employees and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to reduce the likelihood of such incidents.

You can check with the local tax assessor or courthouse records.

On average, it takes four weeks for a permit to be sent to you for your execution if there are no engineering issues or changes involved.

If the executed agreement is returned with all required fees and insurance, you should receive a fully executed agreement from JLL in about a week. Also, before entering the property, you must give at least 10 days advance notice to the appropriate BNSF Railway Scheduling Agent as outlined in your permit. Please click here for additional information regarding the permit process and timelines.

There is an $2000 processing fee for each application.

Please see the Utility Accommodation Manual regarding standard design specifications.

If you have an existing permit with BNSF Railway Company and are performing maintenance or repair work, you must contact the BNSF Roadmaster and have a copy of your permit before entering BNSF property.

The Roadmaster's contact information is located on your permit. If you are unable to locate the contact information you may contact the respective JLL Manager.

You can find more information about BNSF and its predecessor railroads on the Our Railroad page.

Our Railroad in our Company History. There you will find historical summaries of BNSF's major predecessor railroads as well as links to other organizations that serve as useful resources. We also provide an online booklet containing a detailed history of our six major predecessors.

Additionally, you can join the Friends of BNSF website, which contains numerous historical photos and articles.

Friends of BNSF is a community website for people who have an interest in or have a connection to BNSF or its predecessor companies.

It was launched in September 2011 and it has more than 43,000 registered members. The site features historical articles and photos, a gallery of members' submitted train photos, and company updates and background information.

Friends of BNSF members can also opt in to receive occasional email newsletters. For more information and to join, please visit the Friends of BNSF website.

BNSF is proud of its heritage and its historic role in building the U.S. economy.

BNSF has chosen to celebrate its heritage in other ways, including BNSF Railway Foundation grants to support historic preservation activities, support of rail-related community events like National Train Day, railcars marked with the logos of some of our predecessor lines, and the Friends of BNSF project.

The BNSF Railway Foundation primarily supports non-profits in communities located on our 32,500-mile rail network.

The Foundation has supported and helped improve quality of life for thousands of communities across the 28 states through which BNSF operates, and where BNSF employees live, work and volunteer.

Indeed, as the corporation's assets have grown, the Foundation's giving has expanded to help more and more communities.

For more information, please visit www.bnsffoundation.org.

Thanks for your interest in the BNSF Railway Foundation.

We are able to consider your request only if your organization has obtained 501(c)3 status under the Internal Revenue Code or your organization is a division of local government or your organization is a non-profit school or university.

Please visit our online application form.

BNSF does not offer one-time shipment services for items that will not fill an entire railcar or 40-foot container. To use rail for these types of shipments, you can contact one of the many transloaders available across our network using our Transloader Directory, or our sister company BNSF Logistics.

BNSF appreciates its railfan photographers and thanks them for their interest in BNSF and its trains. For safety reasons, BNSF can't grant access to its property for photography purposes. Photography of BNSF operations must be done from a safe location outside of railroad property.

Encounters between BNSF police and photographers are generally casual in nature and not documented unless there is a criminal violation or circumstance that would warrant further law enforcement action or enforcement. BNSF Police reinforce guidance on this issue to officers in the field so that continues to be common practice.　

We value the support the rail community provides to our officers and rely on their continuing understanding that the intent of any contact by police is part an effort to further the safety of our railway and the communities where we operate.

We seldom have cabooses available for sale or donation. Most cabooses were donated or sold years ago. We have a long waiting list of requests for cabooses from communities across our network.

Requests sent in through our Contact Us form will be added to that waiting list.

A more likely way to secure an old passenger car or caboose would be to explore the secondary market for such equipment.

You can visit the BNSF Store website at www.bnsfstore.com.

You can contact the community relations contact listed for your state. Use of this contact form to help us direct your inquiry to the right person and track the progress of our response.