Burlington Northern Santa Fe announced in December it had closed its 2000th highway-rail grade crossing, about 6 percent of all its grade crossings, since the beginning of 2000. BNSF has approximately 30,000 crossings on its 32,500-mile system.

The closure is part of BNSF’s grade-crossing safety program, which is geared to reduce collisions, injuries, and fatalities. The program also includes community education, enhanced crossing technology, crossing resurfacing, vegetation control, installation of warning devices, and track and signal inspection and maintenance.

BNSF says it has had one of the lowest highway-rail grade crossing collision rates in the industry between 2000 and 2003, with collisions declining 26 percent from the 568 collisions in 2000 to just 422 in 2003.