I was checking the official IL state map and it shows the KCS tracks ending at Springfield IL I went to Google and brought up a map of KCS and they also show the same. Do they have track age rights into Chicago and if so who?
NO
Illinois trackage is Gateway Eastern, ex Chicago Missouri River & Western, IC-ICG-Alton-C&A
When the Chicago Missouri River & Western was broken up after the failed Venago River boys, access to Chicago was lost. (SPCSL/UP/IDOT HSR)
KCS does not have access to Chicago. Their line to Springfield was the former regional Gateway Western, prior Chicago Missouri and Western, prior Missouri Division of the ICG, prior GM&O, original Chicago and Alton. When the CM&W went out of business in 1990 or so the SP bought the St Louis-Chicago section, the St. Louis-Kansas City remainder became Gateway Western and then was bought by KCS. It would seem logical for KCS to buy the Chicago-St. Louis line from UP, who now owns it and already has the ex-MP St.Louis-Chicago as their main, and the ex-CM&W is clogged with passenger trains. I have often wondered if the UP were holding on to the ex-CM&W just to keep it away from KCS, it would seem redundant otherwise. NS would be another trackage rights option for KCS, they have their own line to Chicago (partially on CN trackage rights) and they are on good terms with KCS, but I haven’t heard of any such deal in the works.
I was writing when Mudchicken posted. Twenty-five years ago there was a little poster entitled “The Flying Venango Brothers” on the union bulletin board at the Bloomington yard office, it had officers like Gary Darling playing the part of the Ringling Brothers, it said “watch them spin”. Virtually everyone hired by them were scornful of the Venago Brothers, they paid too much and had too little working capital to overcome the years of deferred maintenance the line had seen under ICG, they leased units from Helm and GATX that were needing immediate maintenance and didn’t get it, some of the units had lube oil four inches deep on the gangway while in service. I met Darling once, he was clueless.
With UP now having a Logistics Park on the old GM&O south of Joliet, my guess is they will NEVER sell that line from Springfield or St. Louis north. Yep, quite a few passenger trains on the line, but there is also quite a bit of Federal $$$s to experiment with high speed passenger service. Hence the route is in very good shape.
Always used to love driving on I55 paralleling the line. There were still old B&O CPL signals in place dating back to the Alton’s control by the B&O. Then when SP and later UP took over there were always Denver adn Rio Grande Geeps prowling the locals.
Ed
This brings up another question how much traffic do they I/C at Springfield or is the most of it done in ST Louis/E St Louis. We drove from St Louis to Dwight on old HWY 66 the summer of 1959 and their was a lot of GMO traffic on the line at that time.
IIRC they can only Interchange with NS in the Springfield area as they come up short of Springfield proper. During the rationalization of trackage in downtown Springfield the trackage was cutback to Cockerel and with the demise of a predecessor NS was able to extinguish the Trackage Rights.
That answers the question of with whom does KCS interchange with in Springfiield. The next question is what kind of shape is their track in going to the NS interchange, and the third question is do they serve any on-lin e customers in Springfield. Obvioiusly, they earn more interchanging with NS in Springfield than in St. L, and possibly NS can handle their traffic to Chicago as well. So just how busy is this line?