BNSF honors Utah Railway as Short Line of the Year

BNSF Railway Co. has chosen Utah Railway as the recipient of its 2014 Short Line of the Year Award, which recognizes a short line deemed to be an outstanding business partner with the Class I.

Owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc., Utah Railway operates about 423 miles of track along the heavily populated Wasatch Front Corridor between Grand Junction, Colo., and Provo, Utah, most of which is operated under agreements with BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad. The connection between BNSF and Utah Railway serves multiple customers in numerous industries, including oil, coal, agriculture, and construction and building products.
 
The short line plays a vital role in connecting Utah industries to BNSF’s network, resources and expertise, and its customer service focus and excellent safety record makes the Utah Railway "a short-line industry leader and natural choice for this year’s award," BNSF officials said in a press release.

"Utah Railway demonstrated outstanding performance over the last year as we worked together to grow our businesses and serve mutual customers in petroleum, coal, industrial products and agriculture," said Dean Wise, BNSF's vice president of network strategies.

The short line is committed to enhancing service by focusing on network and terminal velocity initiatives, responding to changes in traffic volume and investing in infrastructure, while emphasizing safety as a No. 1 goal, Utah Railway officials said.

"Before we began working with BNSF, our business was mainly the movement of coal. Now, [we] move many other commodities because shippers have access to the BNSF network," said Clint Ashmead, Utah Railway's vice president of marketing.