Related Party Transactions	9 Months Ended
Related Party Transactions	Sep. 30, 2011
Related Party Transaction, Due from (to) Related Party [Abstract]
Related Party Transactions	Related Party Transactions The companies identified as affiliates of BNSF include Berkshire and its subsidiaries. During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, the Company declared and paid cash distributions of $2,750 million to its parent company. For the nine months ended September 30, 2011, the Company received a tax refund of $426 million from Berkshire and made tax payments of $173 million to Berkshire. Federal income taxes payable to Berkshire were $206 million and $0 million at September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, respectively.

This element may be used for the entire related party transactions disclosure as a single block of text. Disclosure may include: the nature of the relationship(s), a description of the transactions, the amount of the transactions, the effects of any change in the method of establishing the terms of the transaction from the previous period, stated interest rate, expiration date, terms and manner of settlement per the agreement with the related party, and amounts due to or from related parties. If the entity and one or more other entities are under common ownership or management control and this control affects the operating results or financial position, disclosure includes the nature of the control relationship even if there are no transactions between the entities. Disclosure may also include the aggregate amount of current and deferred tax expense for each statement of earnings presented where the entity is a member of a group that files a consolidated tax return, the amount of any tax related balances due to or from affiliates as of the date of each statement of financial position presented, the principal provisions of the method by which the consolidated amount of current and deferred tax expense is allocated to the members of the group and the nature and effect of any changes in that method. Examples of related party transactions include transactions between (a) a parent company and its subsidiary; (b) subsidiaries of a common parent; (c) and entity and its principal owners; and (d) affiliates.