Robert D. Krebs is an American railroad executive who has headed three major United States railroads in succession, leading the Southern Pacific (SP) when it was acquired by Santa Fe Industries, rising to lead the resulting Santa Fe Pacific Corporation, and finally being chosen to head the new Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) when Santa Fe Pacific (the holding company for the Santa Fe railroad) merged with Burlington Northern.
He started out working for SP subsidiary Cotton Belt in the early 1960s becoming the youngest Superintendent of Cotton Belt's Pine Bluff Division in 1971 at age 29. Krebs eventually become president of the SP and later CEO of ATSF and BNSF. He retired as CEO of BNSF in 2000 and left the board when he retired as chairman on April 17, 2002. [1]
On May 13, 2005, Krebs joined the Board of Directors for Railpower Technologies, [2] a position from which he resigned on September 9, 2005, citing personal reasons. [3]
On December 10, 2024, Krebs became the interim President of Lake Forest College after having served on the college's Board of Trustees since 1990. [4] Prior to becoming interim President Krebs was twice Chairman of the Board of Trustees. [5]
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996.
The Santa Fe–Southern Pacific merger was an attempted corporate consolidation of two of the major railroads in the Western United States at the time: the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The approximately US$5 billion deal was announced in September 1983 and in December 1983, both companies were acquired by a new holding company, the Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corporation and both companies' extensive non-railroad related assets were immediately combined. However, the Southern Pacific Railroad remained in a voting trust and the railroads continued to be operated independently and competitively while the merger worked through the regulatory process.
Gerald ("Jerry") Grinstein is an American businessman, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Delta Air Lines. He was CEO of Burlington Northern Railroad from 1985 to 1995, and joined Delta's board of directors in 1987. He became CEO of Delta in 2004, a time of financial crisis for the airline. After overseeing the firm's survival through bankruptcy and implementing a restructuring program, he retired as CEO in 2007.
The West Isle Line is a private railroad and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nutrien. The line is operated by a contractor and the line does not have any employees. The line began service on January 7, 1998, after having been acquired from the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. The line runs for 5.25 miles from Alpaugh, California, to a connection with the BNSF Railway at Stoil. Western Farm Service is the only customer on the line.
The Pacific Harbor Line was formed in 1998 to take over the Harbor Belt Line (HBL). In 1998, the Alameda Corridor was nearing completion, allowing for a massive amount of railroad traffic from the largest harbors in the Western hemisphere: Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach.
The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was a U.S. railroad that owned or operated two individual segments, one connecting St. Louis, Missouri with Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other connecting Albuquerque, New Mexico with Needles in Southern California. It was incorporated by the U.S. Congress in 1866 as a transcontinental railroad connecting Springfield, Missouri and Van Buren, Arkansas with California. The central portion was never constructed, and the two halves later became parts of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway systems, now both merged into the BNSF Railway.
The Keokuk Junction Railway Co., is a Class III railroad in the U.S. states of Illinois and Iowa. It was formerly a subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, but now operates as a subsidiary of Patriot Rail Company.
Colton Crossing is a railway crossing situated in Colton, California, directly south of Interstate 10. It is where the Sunset Route and the Southern Transcon intersect.
Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6 or BNSF Railway Bridge 9.6, also known as the Columbia River Railroad Bridge, is through truss railway bridge across the Columbia River, between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, owned and operated by BNSF Railway. Built by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) and completed in 1908, it was the first bridge of any kind to be built across the lower Columbia River, preceding the first road bridge, the nearby Interstate Bridge, by a little more than eight years.
The Southern Transcon is a main line of the BNSF Railway comprising 11 subdivisions between Southern California and Chicago, Illinois. Completed in its current alignment in 1908 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, when it opened the Belen Cutoff in New Mexico and bypassed the steep grades of Raton Pass, it now serves as a mostly double-tracked intermodal corridor.
The West Texas & Lubbock Railway is a shortline railroad in Texas, owned by Watco. It connects the BNSF in Lubbock with agricultural and oil-producing areas to the west and southwest. The company operates 107 miles of two ex-Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway lines, extending to Whiteface and Seagraves parallel to State Highway 114 and U.S. Highway 62. The primary commodities hauled are fertilizer, construction aggregates, grain, cotton, chemicals, peanuts and plastics.
Kathryn M. "Katie" Thompson Farmer is an American railroad executive. In January 2021, she became the first woman chief executive of a Class I railroad succeeding Carl Ice at BNSF Railway.
Barstow Yard is a classification yard operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) in Barstow, California. With 48 directional tracks and a total area of approximately 600 acres (240 ha), it is the second largest classification yard west of the Rocky Mountains after the J.R. Davis Yard. Today, almost all freight traffic to and from Southern California runs through the junction.