BNSF opens history-making quadruple track in the Powder River Basin (5/21/2008)
5/21/2021Last week, BNSF Railway Co. marked a historic event in Wyoming. The railroad placed into service 21 miles of fourth mainline in the Powder River Basin (PRB) — the world's longest stretch of quadruple mainline devoted exclusively to freight service, BNSF believes.
On May 14, the Class I placed the track into service under the "super highway" concept, which calls for completing mainline track first and adding universal crossovers later to make the new trackage available sooner.
This section of the PRB line — a portion of which BNSF shares with Union Pacific Railroad — averages from 132 trains to 150 trains daily during peak periods. The addition of the fourth track will boost capacity to about 200 trains per day, BNSF said.
Source: Progressive Railroading Daily News