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On Wednesday, BNSF Railway Co. opened a new telecommunications equipment repair facility in Kansas City, Kan.

Featuring updated reporting, service-level tracking, and quality and inventory controls, the 16,000-square-foot Central Repair Facility (CFR) will enable BNSF to consolidate 20 radio repair shops into one plant.

Each year, workers at the facility will perform heavy repairs on about 3,500 end-of-train and 4,500 front-of-train devices; and 30,000 hand-held, 5,500 locomotive, 12,000 mobile and all microwave radios.

"The goal of the CRF is to reduce the average repair time, increase the average time between [equipment] failures and reduce overall costs," said Mike Lannan, BNSF director of telecommunication-south operation, in a prepared statement.