CN Works With BNSF to Create Seamless RoadRailer Network Linking Montreal and Toronto With the U.S. Pacific Southwest.

Business Editors

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 2000

Canadian National Railway Company (CN) (NYSE:CNI)(TSE:CNR.) announced today it has implemented a service agreement with The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) to create a seamless bimodal RoadRailer network linking Montreal, Toronto, Chicago and the United States Pacific Southwest (California and Arizona).

The partnership extends CN's Montreal-Toronto-Chicago RoadRailer service for general merchandise to the Pacific Southwest from Chicago over BNSF. It also expands BNSF's refrigerated Ice Cold Express service for Pacific Southwestern shippers of fruits and vegetables beyond Chicago to Toronto and Montreal over CN lines. The new service began Oct. 16.

Mark Lerner, CN's director of RoadRailer services, said: "Shippers in Southern Ontario and Quebec now have access to a seamless, 3,000-mile RoadRailer network reaching key markets in Arizona and Southern California.

"This truck-competitive RoadRailer service gives CN shippers of retail products, food, beverages, automotive parts, packaging - anything that fits in a traditional dry highway trailer - a new transportation tool to take advantage of fast-growing north-south trade flows."

Steve Branscum, group vice president, BNSF Consumer Products, said: "The demand in the Midwest and Eastern Canada for fresh produce from the Pacific Southwest is significant, especially during the winter months. Through this BNSF-CN partnership, we can now give growers and grocers access to new markets with a true truck-competitive transportation alternative."

CN and BNSF are using a common terminal in Chicago. This improves transit times by eliminating the need for cross-town draying of trailers over congested highways in Chicago.

CN and BNSF both use 53-foot Wabash National RoadRailer trailers and bogies in unit train service. BNSF uses refrigerated trailers (or ReeferRailers); CN employs high-cube dry and protective service RoadRailers.

Bimodal RoadRailer trailers are equally at home on the rails or on highways. The slackless RoadRailer technology ensures a smooth ride. In addition, the ReeferRailers feature state-of-the-art technology for temperature control and satellite tracking for real-time status reports.

The BNSF Ice Cold Express was introduced in June 1999 as a weekly service for temperature-controlled products moving between Southern California and Chicago, with connecting over-the-road service to several locations in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States. In May 2000 the service increased to two trains per week in each direction.

CN introduced its Toronto-Montreal RoadRailer service in September 1999 and extended it to Chicago on Oct. 16, 2000.

Mark VII, a full service transportation and logistics management company headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., will continue to co-ordinate the sales and operations services of the Ice Cold Express.

CN spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 33,500 route-miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF moved more than 3.2 million containers and trailers in 1999 through its extensive network of more than 50 intermodal hubs and intermodal market extension facilities.