BNSF Net Jumps 45 Percent to $706 Million

BNSF Railway's net income in the third quarter rose 44.7 percent from a year earlier to $706 million, as revenue rose 22.1 percent to $4.391 billion.

The western U.S. railroad that became part of Berkshire Hathaway last February also saw its profit margin - net income as a share of revenue - rise to 16.1 percent in the July-September period from 13.6 percent in the 2009 quarter. Its operating expenses rose 16.2 percent to $3.13 billion.

By The Numbers: U.S. Rail Cargo.

BNSF listed those and some other results in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission; it no longer issues quarterly reports as detailed as when it was a standalone public company or those filed by the other major railroads, and its executives no longer hold open quarterly conference calls with stock analysts to discuss operations.

It listed cash and cash equivalents on hand as of Sept. 30 of $2.125 billion, up from $1.269 billion on Dec. 31, 2009.

BNSF has been reworking its management structure in recent weeks. It split the roles of company CEO and president, promoting Carl Ice from executive vice president and chief operating officer to president and COO. Matthew K. Rose retains his titles of BNSF chairman and CEO.

The company followed that move by naming Greg Fox as executive vice president for operations. He had been vice president for transportation.

Unlike other railroads' quarterly reports, the BNSF financial filing does not detail traffic levels and make direct comparison with the year-ago quarter. The railroad earlier said in its weekly traffic reports that third-quarter volume was up 13 percent, with intermodal units rising nearly 20 percent while carloads gained 9 percent.

-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.