Has anybody heard anything at all about why the Union Pacific has not bought out the IC&E route from Kansas City to Rock Island and up the Mississippi a ways to connect with it’s own former C&NW main line into Chicago? It seems a little strange given that the BNSF routes from Chicago to Kansas City are and will only get more congested in the coming years. I read that about 15 years ago SP tried to buy the former Rock Island/Milwaukee Road line from Kansas City to Chicago, but was thwarted by C&NW because of the shared trackage in Missouri. Why did C&NW stop SP? I suspect that given DM&E’s plans to get an FRA loan for upgrading their existing line and building a new line to the PRB, that might give them good cover to sell the Kansas City-Quad Cities line so as to pay off part of the loan. Any thoughts?
The UP is the largest railroad in the United States. It probably has a better divergining route somewhere farther west or south.
Besides, buyouts are not inevitable. Perhaps UP didn’t offer Kevin Schieffer enough money. And since UP is a private corporation, they can’t pull eminent domain to make that presumably coveted road their own (at least, not YET).
Are you talking about the River Sub up to Sabula Jct. and east on the Chicago Sub or…
I know UP is detouring the ICE into Chicago.
The line out of Chicago is former MILW lines.
I think he is talking about the south end of what is now the IC&E. During the time the Soo Line owned the trackage they tried to sell the portion from Kansas City to Chicago to the Southern Pacific. This was blocked due to the portion from Kansas City to Polo being jointly owned by Soo and C&NW, and in the joint ownership agreement there was a clause allowing either party to object to the transfer of the others ownership. Of course the C&NW got its just deserts a few years later when CP extracted consessions from UP for allowing the transfer from C&NW to UP. The CP only leased the segment to IMRL because it couldn’t sell it. By the time the IC&E was created, the agreement between the CP and UP had been rewritten.
The former MILW route now owned by the IC&E would require heavy investment
to bring it up to standards where you could consider it a true primary mainline. The section through Ottumwa and then up Rutledge Hill is a serious bottleneck
and would be hard to improve with a major river bridge in Ottumwa. The section through Davenport is also not great with a sag necessary to get under the Government Bridge that is subject to flooding. The UP is working on tieing the former C&NW St. Louis line into the BNSF although this work is progressing by fits and starts and when it will be completed is unkown. Until the UP finishes upgrading the Sunset and Golden State routes there isn’t a pressing need for more capacity between KC and Chicago.
One further thought Luke, the IC&E (DM&E) would not want to sell the section from the Quad Cities south to at least Columbus Jct., IA and perhaps at least Ottumwa. Certainly an important part of their plan to access the PRB is built around hauling coal to the large powerplant located at Fruitland, IA which is south of Muscatine, IA and hence south of the Quad Cities. The two largest customers for IC&E are located south of the Quad Cities, the powerplant at Fruitland, IA and the IPSCO steel mill at Montpelier, IA both are near Muscatine.
And then there is grain moving to the Gulf via their freindly connection to the KCS at Kansas City.
Thanx for answering my questions
ICE has a lot of buisness on the lines south of the QC. They get trains from us in Ottumwa ( coal for Fruitland) and of course IPSCO. They also do a lot of haulage for the CP. UP is detouring trains via ICE and also BNSF. So much for shortage of track space wink wink. We have been running a ton of UP trains and all of ours with no problem.