BNSF touts 2025 as one of its best service years

BNSF Railway's dwell reduction efforts and velocity increases in 2025 resulted in the year being one of the Class I's best in terms of service, the company announced yesterday.

BNSF reduced dwell on its merchandise train network by 13% to historic lows in 2025, BNSF officials said in an online "Rail Talk" report. Dwell refers to the average amount of time a rail car spends in a terminal before it’s transported to its next stop; the lower the dwell time, the better. Also, monthly dwell times broke records each month in 2025.

Last year on average, rail cars on BNSF's network spent three fewer hours dwelling at a terminal compared with the previous year.

Meanwhile, velocity — which refers to the average miles per day of a rail car or locomotive; the higher, the better — increased by about 10% across the network year over year. Both measures are indicators of the efficiency of the company's rail network, BNSF officials said.

The Class I also excelled in its intermodal service, company officials said. For example, at its Southern California on-dock facilities at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where containers are loaded directly from ships to trains, BNSF surpassed its previous yearly record set in 2024 by more than 125,000 lifts.