Northern Lines Railway (NLR) Recently Joined BNSF’s Shortline Select™ Program

November 10, 2025 - Congratulations to Northern Lines Railway (NLR), which recently joined BNSF’s Shortline Select™ program. NLR is part of the Anacostia Rail Holdings family alongside PHL, NYA, LIRC, CSS and GCS.

NLR joins just seven short line railroads nationwide selected for this exclusive initiative. Like its sister railroads (PHL, NYA, LIRC and CSS), NLR and BNSF share a long-standing, collaborative relationship built on a shared commitment to growth, reliability, and customer success.

Shortline Select™, announced by BNSF in the fall of 2024, allows short line railroads to share BNSF’s enduring commitment to growth and superior service by providing expanded opportunities for customers to reach an even broader consumer base. The program combines the benefit of short line customized service with BNSF’s vast network reach, which spans 32,500 miles, 28 states and three Canadian provinces.

In the program’s first year, Shortline Select™ has supported improved service performance by reducing car dwell, improving interchange fluidity, and growing traffic volume across participating short line railroads.

Participating short line railroads collaborate with BNSF on economic development and growth initiatives through:

Premier Transloads – Transload providers on Shortline Select railroads may be included in BNSF’s Premier Transload Program, a network of more than 400 transloaders across the BNSF system.

Certified Sites – Select locations on Shortline Select railroads may be eligible for BNSF’s Certified Site designation, which is an inventory of available, rail-ready industrial sites that are pre-approved for development, increasing speed to market.

In a press release, BNSF announced NLR’s inclusion in Shortline Select, along with another short line, Columbia Basin Railroad (CBRW).

According to BNSF General Director of Marketing Mark Ganaway, “Both NLR and CBRW exemplify BNSF’s dedication to dependable, integrated service and share our focus on supporting customer success through collaborative growth.”

BNSF connects with over 200 short line railroads nationwide, but NLR is one of only eight short line railroads in BNSF Shortline Select™ .

NLR looks forward to growing its partnership with BNSF for many years to come, and PHL, NYA, LIRC and CSS are ready to work with BNSF on the Shortline Select™ program in the future.

We are happy to share this information from our partner, Anacostia Rail Holdings. Click here to learn more.