BNSF chief: More targeted infrastructure spending needed
The CEO of BNSF Railway said today that Congress and the Obama administration should focus a multi-year transportation reauthorization program to address congestion in and around the nation's commerce centers and avoid distributing funds in areas where the impact will be limited.
Matthew K. Rose, chairman, president, and CEO of BNSF, said reauthorization funds should "not be spread like peanut butter" across the country. Instead, they should be focused on improving infrastructure and relieving congestion within the 30 U.S. cities that handle the equivalent of 70 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, he said.
Rose, whose company is owned by billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., appeared on a panel of CEOs at the National Industrial Transportation League's annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The most recent multi-year surface transport reauthorization bill expired on Sept. 30, 2009. The program has been surviving on a series of short-term funding extensions since then.
