On June 16, BNSF Railway Co. closed a grade crossing in Crete, Neb. — the railroad's 4,000th closure since a crossing closure program launched in 2000.
Under the program, a team of employees from field safety and engineering/public projects works with community leaders and property owners to identify redundant or unnecessary public and private crossings. BNSF has more than 26,000 crossings spread across its 32,000-mile network.
Since 2000, the Class I's crossing incident rate has decreased more than 45 percent, from 3.34 to 1.81 incidents per million train miles, BNSF said.
"We have one of the lowest highway-railroad grade-crossing collision rates in the rail industry," said Vice President of Engineering Dave Freeman in an item posted on the "BNSF News" Web site.
Meanwhile, the Class I also announced Bissell Homecare Inc. recently broke ground on a new distribution center in Elwood, Ill. The site is located one-half mile from BNSF Logistics Park-Chicago, which features the railroad's intermodal facility. The distribution center is scheduled to open in November.
Source: Progressive Railroading Daily News
