At 32,500 miles of track, the 176-year old company known now as Burlington Northern Santa Fe could run a railroad line around the earth and have room to spare.

What it cannot do, however, according to legislators, advocacy agencies, and small-town Montana mayors, is provide prompt responses when building near the railroad becomes unavoidable. They’ve complained of exorbitant prices for permits, wait times stretching months to receive communication from BNSF and inconsistency from one of the nation’s largest freight companies. The railroad company is also in a legal battle with a company laying hundreds of miles of fiber optic cable in the Treasure State.