BNSF’s Shortline Select grows from one railroad to 10 in two years
BNSF’s Shortline Select program has grown to 10 short lines after adding R.J. Corman’s Tennessee Terminal and OmniTRAX’s Central Texas & Colorado River, up from one at its 2024 launch.
BNSF announced the two additions in a news release dated September 17 on its website. Both railroads hand traffic directly to BNSF: the Tennessee Terminal (RJCK) at Memphis, Tennessee, and Olive Branch, Mississippi, and the Central Texas & Colorado River (CTXR) at Lometa, Texas.
How the program has grown since 2024
BNSF launched Shortline Select in September 2024 with Genesee & Wyoming’s Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway as its first participant. A BNSF feature published in June 2025 listed five partners, and in November 2025 the railroad brought in Northern Lines Railway and Columbia Basin Railroad.
The program page now lists 10 members. It says BNSF expects more short lines to join but gives no timetable.
| Railroad | Earliest BNSF document naming it as a member |
|---|---|
| Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway (AGR) | September 2024 launch release |
| Burlington Junction Railway (BJRY) | June 2025 BNSF feature |
| Portland & Western Railroad (PNWR) | June 2025 BNSF feature |
| Red River Valley & Western (RRVW) | June 2025 BNSF feature |
| Texas North Western Railway (TXNW) | June 2025 BNSF feature |
| Northern Lines Railway (NLR) | November 2025 release |
| Columbia Basin Railroad (CBRW) | November 2025 release |
| Timber Rock Railroad (TIBR) | Current program page; absent from the June 2025 list |
| Tennessee Terminal (RJCK) | September 2026 release |
| Central Texas & Colorado River (CTXR) | September 2026 release |
Membership rose from one railroad at launch to five by June 2025 and to 10 by September 2026. BNSF has not published a joining date for every member, so the table shows the first BNSF document reviewed that names each one.
Sources: BNSF launch release, June 2025 feature, November 2025 release, September 2026 release and program page.
The June 2025 feature also explained why BNSF built the program. A third of its carload freight starts or ends on a short line. The work tracks two measures: interchange performance and dwell, the time cars sit idle.
A Memphis terminal and a Texas line back in service
The Tennessee Terminal has run for two decades. R.J. Corman’s line profile gives 36.72 miles of track in Shelby and DeSoto counties, 32 customers, a yard office in Olive Branch and a start-up date of March 2006.
Shannon Drown, R.J. Corman’s chief commercial officer for railroads, tied the company’s growth in Memphis alongside BNSF to reliable service and to industrial development work aimed at bringing new business onto the network.
The Central Texas & Colorado River is a much newer operation. OmniTRAX bought the line in 2016, when it was called the Heart of Texas Railroad. Its railroad page says the company owns 66 miles of track and has rebuilt 48 of them.
The line reopened on April 1, 2026 to move unit trains of aggregates from a quarry at San Saba to the BNSF interchange at Lometa. OmniTRAX Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Dreier said Shortline Select strengthens the BNSF partnership by providing “expanded capacity and rail solutions for customers operating in this rapidly growing region.”
What Shortline Select members get from BNSF
Member railroads work with BNSF on operational process changes and hold economic terms agreed in advance, which BNSF says allow quicker answers when customers ask for rates.
Two BNSF development tools are also open to them. Transload operators on member lines may join the Premier Transload Program, a group of more than 400 transloaders. Some locations may qualify for Certified Site status, BNSF’s list of rail-ready industrial sites already approved for development. BNSF has described the site work as the first time its certification reaches beyond its own network.
BNSF says that over two years the program has reduced car dwell, made interchanges more fluid and increased traffic on participating lines. Its releases and program page give no figures for those results and do not say how members are chosen.
