Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway will spend $3.6 billion for infrastructure improvements as part of its 2026 capital investment plan.
Most of the money — $2.8 billion — will pay for maintenance to ensure the Class 1 railroad operates safely and at capacity with few unscheduled service outages, company officials said.
BNSF president and CEO Katie Farmer said the company’s plan focuses on strengthening and modernizing the railroad’s network.
“We prioritize investing with the future in mind, improving efficiency, adding capacity and ensuring our railroad is always ready to support growth while delivering dependable, resilient service our customers count on,” Farmer said in a statement.
About $358 million will go toward expansion and efficiency improvements, part of the $2.6 billion invested over the past five years. BNSF’s expansion plans to support customer growth by investing in facility and line projects to increase network capacity and efficiency, company officials said.
Maintenance projects include upgrading 13,000 miles of rail infrastructure as well as replacing 2.5 million rail ties and more than 400 miles of rail.
In November, BNSF, Dallas-based Hillwood and the city of Fort Worth announced the creation of the Alliance Logistics District, a mobility hub within the Smart Port at the AllianceTexas development.
BNSF, Alliance and the city of Fort Worth have created the Alliance Logistics District. (Courtesy photo | Hillwood)
BNSF’s other Texas projects underway include construction of a new north Dallas logistics center located in the Grayson County city of Gunter, company spokesperson Kendall Kirkham Sloan said.
Another new logistics center in Cleveland, Texas, now serves the north Houston area with a 1,200-acre site.
“We have moved to phase two, for construction, which is track work and civil construction to support a customer,” Sloan said.
Other major BNSF projects include property acquisitions and development activities for the planned Barstow International Gateway, or BIG, project, a 4,500-acre rail facility in Barstow, California.
That’s designed to improve supply chain efficiency by moving freight from international to domestic containers. The BIG project is expected to generate thousands of jobs and establish Barstow as a transportation hub, company officials said.
Development and construction planning is underway for a $3.2 billion, 4,320-acre facility at Logistics Park Phoenix that will include a rail-served freight terminal.
Track expansion projects are also underway in Galesburg, Illinois, and Winslow, Arizona. That work will increase switching capacity, support network performance and productivity initiatives for railcars and locomotives.
BNSF’s total revenue increased by 2% to more than $6 million in the third quarter of 2025, according to the company’s earnings report. For the first nine months of last year, revenue increased 1%, compared to the same periods in 2024.
The company said the average revenue per car or unit increased 1% in the third quarter of 2025 over the same period in 2024 due to core pricing gains. However, for the first nine months of 2025, average revenue per car or unit declined 1% from the same period in 2024 because of lower fuel surcharge revenue and an unfavorable business mix, BNSF officials said.
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/02/02/fort-worth-based-bnsf-committing-3-6b-for-railroad-improvements/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=392843&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/02/02/fort-worth-based-bnsf-committing-3-6b-for-railroad-improvements/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>