Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

M.H.. Siegele                                                                                                 September 19, 2003
AVP/BNSF                                                                                                   File: Article IX, Arbitration Award No. 458
2600 Lou Menk Drive                                                                                    Spokane/Portland ID Service
P. 0. Box 961030
Ft.Worth, TX 76161—0030

Dear Mr. Siegele:

This is in reference to your letter dated September 10, 2003, referencing Article IX of Arbitration Award No. 458. Your letter proposes the establishment of interseniority freight service between Portland. OR/Vancouver, WA and Spokane, WA, running through Pasco, WA. Although we are agreeable to meet with you and discuss any ideas, we do not agree that your letter provides proper notice under the provisions of Article IX.

Article IX requires that the Carrier comply with the following to initiate the provisions of the Article.

"Section 1-Notice-

An individual carrier seeking to establish interdivisional service shall give at least twenty days’ written notice to the organization of its desire to establish service, specify the service it proposes to establish and the conditions, if any, which it proposes will govern the establishment of such service."

Your letter of September 10, 2003 is void of any the specifics of your desires and is also void of any proposals that would govern the establishment of that yet to be specified service. As such, we do see that your letter constitutes proper notice under the provisions of Article IX. Accordingly, none of the time periods described in Section 3- "Procedures" of Article IX have begun to toll and we would expect that you will maintain the status quo until such time that proper notice is served and the parties exhaust the provisions of the Article.

As stated above, we are willing to meet to discuss your ideas, but with the recent profusion of notices received from your office, I am unable to suggest a speci6c date to meet as our calendars arc already quite full with other open issues. Incidentally, in conversations with Assistant Vice President Stephens, the service mentioned in your letter was discussed and from my recollection of the conversation, Mr. Stephens indicated that, it would be possible to postpone the suggested D service at least until after the fall grain rush that we are anticipating. We must also note that we are very skeptical that a run of approximately 380 miles in what is predominantly single track meet the Article IX description of runs that are "reasonable in regard to the miles run". As for the implementation date suggested in your notice, I would again ask that you refrain from implementing any new service until proper notice is served and the parties have met and then exhausted the provisions of Article IX.

 Sincerely,

/s/ Dennis R. Pierce
General Chairman

Enclosures

cc:     Rick Etienne, BLE Local Chairman, Division 758 
         Rod Boyles, BLE Local Chairman, Division 104
         John Fitzgerald, General Chairman, UTU 
         Robert Kerley, General Chairman, UTU 
         Ray Stephens, AVP, BNSF Operations North 
         Ron Jackson, General Manager, BNSF Northwest Division 
         Randy Luther, General Director, BNSF Labor Relations 
         Nick Markos, Director, BNSF Labor Relations

BNSF    MILTON H. SIEGELE Assistant Vice President  Labor Relations	The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company
	PO Box 961030 Fort Worth TX. 76161-0030 2600 Lou Menk Drive Garden Level  Fort Worth TX 76161-0030 Phone: 817-352-1068 Fax: 817-352-7319 E-mail: Milton.Siegele@BNSF.com