This video outlines my thoughts about why CP is acquiring KCS.
I’m hearing about a ceremony in Kansas City at 11 AM eastern, does anyone know if this will be live-streamed or recorded?
It was live streamed at 10 am this morning.
Will this be a good or bad thing for the railroad industry?
Also do the paint schemes change?
the future decades will tell
Hard to say…when there’s less competition there’s less incentive to innovate/hustle/improve. We would have been better off with a dozen or two class 1s…at least two competitors in every market, and ideally three or four. But, that ship has sailed, and there’s no going back.
The logo
https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?attachments/upload_2023-4-15_10-32-13-png.267817/
Image looks like a Bayou Beaver and a Maple Leaf getting whacked by the beaver’s tail.
Some potential contact people for greyhounds’ meat train development:
OK, I’ll write a letter to Mr. Brooks. I’ll post it on this forum.
We’ll see.
As of now, a phone call is out of the question due to my hearing loss. (I’m going to get a cochlear implant.)
The thing is, and the reason this was approved (while CN+KCS was rejected), CPKC doesn’t reduce competition. The railroads connect at Kansas City and don’t overlap at all.
A small quibble I have with the vedio is about the CP selling off the Soo Line. Most of what was sold off was the original ex-WC east of Saint Paul, which was made redundant with the purchase of the shorter (and presumably superior route of the ) Milwaukee Road to Chicago.
As imaginative as the original BNSF logo - the Donut Cross [*-)]
There ain’t no beavers in Mehico!
Perhaps they should have swapped out the maple leaf for a blue agave plant.
Less competition…Prior to the merger a Canadian shipper with freight going into the southwest could choose a CP - KCS routing or CN - KCS routing. Now CP and KCS are merged as one company shippers no longer have the CN - KCS option…hence reduced options i.e. less competition. Same scenario in reverse for American shippers to Canada.
Of course it’s about eliminating competition…the same efficiencies that this merger supposedly “unlocks” could have been realized through operating and marketing agreements between said companies, without requiring a merger. Adding no new locomotives and not a mile of new track unlocks so much potential? Somehow I doubt it. I wish them luck, and I hope it works out.
What line did KCS have that served the Southwest or did you mean Mexico?
I suppose in theory the former IC intersects the KCS at Vicksburg, and technically the former IC and KCS connect in the greater St. Louis area. Perhaps that is what was being referred to?
And some consider Texas to be the start of the Southwest. Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are the two biggest population centers and of course KCS reaches both.
(Also in my head as I type I am phonetically pronouncing it correctly as the natives do - TEK-sis.)
I’m glad the merger happened. It’s not going to change the industry too much and it doesn’t reduce competition. I feel it’s a much better outcome than had CN got hold of KCS.
Jeff
I don’t know. While it may not change the industry, I don’t know if I’m ever glad to see another RR gone.