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Last year, Burlington Northern Santa Fe convinced 149 shippers to build or expand facilities along its lines, generating $1.1 billion in industrial development and creating 3,845 jobs.

The facilities include ethanol plants in California, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, and North and South Dakota; lumber yards and transload centers in California, Kansas and Minnesota; and consumer and perishables product warehouses in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Missouri and Nebraska.

"Housing starts in 2003 were the highest since 1978, [which] dramatically increased demand for our products," said Jerry Higman, president of Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Reliable Wholesale Lumber, in a prepared statement. "Working with BNSF helped us to quickly locate two new distribution centers that increased our capacity, and enabled broader access and deeper penetration into key markets."

The Class I partners with state and local public and private economic development agencies to help shippers select sites and develop projects that can optimize their distribution networks, said Vann Cunningham, BNSF assistant vice president of economic development.