With a focus on maintenance for 2018, the BNSF Railway Company announced its capital expenditure program for Illinois this week–a program which will see $150 million invested in the area.
A good chunk of this will be going into the replacement and upgrading of various rail, rail ties and ballast to keep BNSF’s trains running. It expands on nearly $1.2 billion of maintenance and expansion investments made by the company over the last five years.
“Illinois is a vital link in BNSF’s 32,500 route-mile network and a key interchange point with other railroads enabling us to serve customers in Canadian and eastern U.S. markets,” Jason Jenkins, general manager of operations for BNSF’s Chicago Division, said. “In total, nearly 2.9 million carloads and intermodal units are shipped to or from Illinois every year, making operating a safe and efficient rail network a priority in the state.”
To that end, the company intends more than 650 miles of track resurfacing/undercutting work and the outright replacement of nearly 30 miles of rail this year. This represents just a small part of BNSF’s total investments being made in 2018, though. It’s a fraction of their 2018 planned capital investments, which could see as much as $3.3 billion invested throughout their network–$2.4 billion of which will go to maintenance and $500 million to expansion and efficiency projects.