Northern Transcon
It follows the eastern shore of the river through La Crosse and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin before turning west again in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota to Casselton, North Dakota.
The line descends down the west side of the pass for 20 miles (32 km) to Essex, Montana, running mostly double track on a narrow shelf, and crossing several high trestles over the Flathead River.
The line continues northwest to Stryker, Montana, then turns south and passes through the 7-mile-long (11 km) Flathead Tunnel as it runs west toward Sandpoint, Idaho.
The Builder rejoins the Transcon main route at Minot and continues on to Seattle, though a section branches off to serve Portland, Oregon.
BNSF also owns trackage with running rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where it has a yard operated by a switch unit and full crew.
In 1970, the construction of the Libby Dam formed Lake Koocanusa, flooding the towns of Rexford, Montana and Waldo, British Columbia and the railroad line.
[2] This required the relocation of more than 60 miles (97 km) of track between Stryker and Jennings and the building of Flathead Tunnel which, like the dam, was constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The pass was named for its founder, Charles Haskell, who in the winter of 1891 had set out to locate a reasonable alignment for the Great Northern railroad to take between Kalispell, Montana and the Kootenai River.
Completed in 1892, the Haskell Pass line left the modern alignment of the route at Columbia Falls, Montana, a few miles east of Whitefish.
The line travelled almost due south to Kalispell, where a branch split off the route that ran to Somers, Montana on the shore of Flathead Lake.
When Flathead Tunnel was constructed in 1970, part of the Haskell Pass alignment along the Fisher River was recycled, namely the leg from Jennings to Tamarack siding (originally Sterling).
Keeping the Northern Transcon open during the winter is a significant challenge, weather from snow in the Midwest and mountains, or rain in the Pacific Northwest.
Heavy rains have the potential to cause mudslides along Puget Sound between Seattle and Everett and in the Nisqually, Washington area between Tacoma and Olympia.
[citation needed] Amtrak operates its Empire Builder on the corridor between Twin Cities and points west, though the train utilizes a more northerly route between Fargo and Minot.
Between 2009 and 2013, when BNSF suspended freight traffic between Fargo and Minot via Grand Forks because of overflows of Devils Lake, threatened to allow the rising waters to cover the line unless Amtrak could provide $100 million to raise the tracks.
BNSF also offered Amtrak, during that time, to accommodate the Builder on the segment of the Transcon between Fargo and Minot, but that would have meant the loss of the Grand Forks, Devils Lake and Rugby station stops.
