Don’t know how much to put into this but saw something in one of my Yahoo RR Groups that there’s a rumor out that CN is looking again; quite possibly at the KCS via the former Gateway Western from STL to KCITY. Again, not sure what to think or how much to put into this one. Personally, I hope it’s something that fades quickly.
That would be ironic since the KCS/GWRR tracks were once part of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio, which merged with IC in 1972 into ICG. In the late 1980s ICG spun off the route southwest of Springfield, IL that eventually became Gateway Western. After a stint of ownership by ATSF in the early 90s, GWRR became part of KCS. Hadn’t ICG/IC spun off this trackage, it would be owned by CN already. I hope CN doesn’t acquire KCS because I don’t want to see the Belle scheme fade away, and KCS is one of the very few original class 1s left. If CN wants to send trains via KCS they should get trackage rights.
What - doesn’t CN have enough heartburn already from the EJ&E acquisition earlier this year ? Or are they just gluttons for punishment ?
With the lowest operating ratio of the Class Is, they’ve gotta do somethin with all that CASH they’re generating.[:-^]
Meaning CN, not KCS.
Well, they could start by paying some of it out to the stockholders as dividends - [:-,] that would be me, as one of them.
Or, I’ll take it ‘in kind’ - cab ride privileges on some of the routes, I’m not particular . . . [:-^]
- PDN.
Buying the appendages without the KCS we know and love is like buying a ham sandwich with no ham.
That may not be a bad move for CN…the EJ&R experience has allowed CN to gain some additional expertise in controversial purchases…how to deal with the STB…the public…the media etc. Why not leverage that expertise instead of letting it atrophy? Strike while the iron is hot…
CN thoroughly botched the “politics” of the EJ&E acquisition. If they had been politically savy, they would have made a deal with the city of Chicago,NS and Amtrak for elimination of the St. Charles Airline before they filed their application (there’s a relatively easy way to reroute the Amtrak trains by relaying tracks on an existing ROW at Grand Junction near 79th Street). That would have made Chicago an enthusiastic supprorter of the merger, rather than a tepid one, and would have neutralized the opposition of the communities along the EJE. Anyone who knows Chicago politics could have told them this, and probably did, but they didn’t listen. Whether they “learned” anything from this fiasco remains to be seen.
CN would run into some major antitrust issues if it made a play for KCS since it already has a Midwest-Gulf route with the IC.
I tend to think along the same lines.
Yeah right. Those outlying communities didn’t care about rail traffic inside Chicago itself, they just got upset when it moved to their line. Like all "NIMBY"s. Might have made the city (downtown) happy, but there’s usually not much to make communities that are getting increased rail service happy.
There’s a subtle distinction here, as I understand it: Falcon48 isn’t saying that the NIMBYtowns would be made happy - but instead, that an opportunity was missed to co-opt the City of Chicago and get it more ‘on board’ with CN’s acquisition of the EJ&E than it was. Now, you’re quite right that would not have made the NIMBY opposition go away - but it would have countered or ‘offset’ such opposition a whole lot more than was apparently done. That’s what Falcon48 is saying, it seems to me.
- PDN.
That’s precisely what I was saying. Obviously, the NIMBY’s along EJE could never be molified. But getting Chicago as an enthusiastic, active backer (rather than a tepid one) would have neutralized them. For example, it’s highly unlikely that the Illinois senators (Dick Durkin and Barak Obama, before he became President) both of whom are Democrats, would have come out against the merger as they did (in response to opposition from the largely Republican towns along EJE) if Chicago had been out front supprting the merger. This is the type of thing that savy Government Affairs people at railroads and other industries are paid to think of. Of course, maybe they did, but Montreal didn’t listen. .
falcon48: ah ok. Just a misreading of your original post. I understand your statement about trying to least get the city of Chicago in support (always nice to have friends on your side); just the way the part about neutralizing the opposition from the EJE communites was written (or at least they way I read it) it seemed like you were implying it would have also somehow lessened their opposition, which we know never happens with NIMBYs ;).
The Gulf isn’t the destination, the country of Mexico is. Do you know how much merchandise and minerals are sent through the US between those two countries? They are simply probably looking at a strait shot from one border to the other with as little encumberances as possible. Who can blame them? No matter who is at the helm.
A CN/KCS hookup could damper CP’s quest for a friendly interchange partner in KC in which it currently enjoys with KCS, but I could be wrong.
Jeff
Which is precisely why I think CPRS is doing everything it can to make sure it has that card available to them should the time need/arise.
This railroading is nothing but a huge “Chess” game.
But on a much larger scale - which is why it’s called ‘railroad geo-politics’'. ;-))
- Paul North.
A CN linkup with the KCS has problems that can be stated with just 4 letters, the first 2 are UP, and the second 2 are NS. Neither KCS nor IC can operate trains across Springfield, IL to reach the other, all traffic must either be interchanged to the UP or the UP must perform haulage, either way the UP will gut the profitability of the movement. When the KCS went to the NS with hat in hand for money to upgrade the Meridian Speedway between Meridian, MS and Shreveport, LA they created a joint venture called Meridian Speedway LLC. The KCS put in ownership of the trackage between the two cities and got the largest share of ownership, the NS put in $300m and received various rights that allow them control what uses the trackage, though obviously they cannot do things detrimental to KCS as they are. These rights will give the NS capacity allocation controls.
And then there is the bridge at Vicksburg.