Surfacing Weekly Update #5

13 May 2004

CONTINUING ON SCHEDULE

As of 13 May, we have surfaced over 95 of the 800 pass miles to be surfaced in 2004. It is scheduled to be completed by November 24th. As of now, it appears we will meet and may very well exceed that schedule. The surfacing is slightly ahead of schedule.

¨ All of the 53 new Ballast cars that were leased for 2 years have arrived on line with 38 already in service and receiving very good reviews from the engineering forces

¨ The Brandt truck, operated by Ernie Lehmkuhl has been very instrumental in the ballast unloading operation. This truck can pull up to 20 cars of ballast or other material for MOW crews to unload saving on work train requirements.

¨ Surfacing started March 17, 2004 and is progressing at nearly 20 pass miles per week.

¨ As of 13 May 2004, over 42,500 tons (over 500 car loads) of ballast has been delivered. This is 20% of the 200,000 tons expected to be delivered this year.

¨ The Transportation Department continues to do an excellent job moving the loads and empties to the needed locations.

¨ The Owatonna sub was removed from the FRA “excepted” track status earlier this week and we expect this area to start to be raised to FRA class 2 (25mph) as the surfacing progresses northward