RailAmerica Acquires Alabama Rail Line From Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

Business Editors

BOCA RATON, Fla. & FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 2003

RailAmerica, Inc. (NYSE:RRA) and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) today announced that BNSF has sold/leased 288 miles of contiguous rail line in and around Mobile, Alabama to RailAmerica's wholly owned subsidiary, Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway (AGR), for approximately $15 million in cash. AGR commenced rail service on this line June 1, 2003.

The 288 miles of rail line includes owned, leased and trackage rights segments running from Amory, Mississippi to Mobile, Alabama, connecting directly with AGR at Kimbrough, Alabama. As a result of this connection, RailAmerica expects to realize significant synergies and cost savings, as AGR now provides direct access to the Port of Mobile for large paper product manufacturers and other customers in the region. AGR anticipates hauling approximately 23,000 additional carloads and generating approximately $12 million in new operating revenue on this line in its first full year of operation. Major shippers on the line include Gulf States Paper Corporation, EKA Chemicals, Kerr-McGee Chemical, Weyerhaeuser and the Port of Mobile.

Including this acquisition, AGR now operates 429 miles of rail line and expects to move approximately 58,000 carloads annually. Principal commodities include paper, pulp and paper products, chemicals and grain. AGR interchanges with five Class I carriers at various locations, including BNSF at both Amory and Columbus, Mississippi. AGR also gains new interchanges with fellow short line operators Meridian & Bigbee Railroad, Golden Triangle Railroad, Columbus & Greenville Railroad, Luxapalilla Valley Railroad and Terminal Alabama State Docks Railroad. RailAmerica acquired AGR in January 2002 when it acquired StatesRail.

"This line acquisition is consistent with our strategic approach in North America to build geographic clusters of operations to achieve operating and marketing efficiencies and to grow the existing customer base," said Gary O. Marino, RailAmerica's Chairman, President & CEO. "Through its ability to offer shippers single line service to the Port of Mobile, AGR should be able to substantially expand its business base and increase carloads. In addition, this investment should afford our shareholders a significant return on investment and generate substantial free cash flow from operations. Our management team at AGR is truly excited by the reception received to date from new customers and has already identified several new growth opportunities."

"Through our agreement with RailAmerica, BNSF will continue to have the access needed to participate in future economic growth opportunities in south Alabama, Mobile, and the Port of Mobile," said Matthew K. Rose, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation. "Short line operators provide valuable and efficient service that supports our growth strategy. They feed us traffic through service offerings closely tailored to the needs of our shippers located on their lines. We have found RailAmerica to be innovative, nimble and responsive service providers and we look forward to working with them to maximize the value of this line to our customers and to BNSF."

RailAmerica, Inc. (NYSE:RRA) is the world's largest short line and regional railroad operator with 49 railroads operating approximately 12,900 miles in the United States, Canada, Australia and Chile. In Australia and Argentina, an additional 4,300 miles are operated under track access arrangements. The Company is a member of the Russell 2000(R) Index. Its website may be found at http://www.railamerica.com.

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with 32,500 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at http://www.bnsf.com. The railway is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, transports the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough coal to generate about 10 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

DISCLAIMER REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and the performance of RailAmerica that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including, but not limited to, fuel costs, foreign currency risks, failure to successfully complete or integrate acquisitions, failure to service debt, failure to successfully market and sell non-operating/non-strategic/non-core properties and assets when scheduled or at all, failure to accomplish new marketing initiatives, economic conditions, customer demand, increased competition in the relevant market, and others. In particular, forward-looking statements regarding earnings of the Company are subject to inherent economic, financial and operating uncertainties, including changes in economic conditions, realization of operating and personnel synergies, the ability to retain key customers and the impact of unforeseen costs and liabilities. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statement was made. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information. If the Company does update any forward-looking statement, no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect to that statement or any other forward-looking statements. We refer you to the documents that RailAmerica files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, such as Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, which contain additional important factors that could cause its actual results to differ from its current expectations and from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.