A lot of talk says BNSF & CNIC might merge which leaves NS CSX CP and KCS sitting ducks kcs would probaly go to BNSF or NS OR MERGE with IC&E [8D]its hard to tell .[
This is my opinion and only my opinion – I do not want to ever see any more mergers ! ! ! NONE ! ! ! NO MORE MERGERS ! ! !
The only way a merger should ever be approved is if the merged road would have to declare bankruptcy and cease operations.
Mergers create chaos within the railroad community. People lose their jobs. And cities lose rail service. Enough is enough, NO MORE ! ! !
I Agree Theres Only 7Class 1 Railroads Left And UP Cant Stay On Track With What They Have.
There are certain tell-tale signs occuring on the KCS that point to an upcoming merger: Siding construction, CTC installation projects, yard improvements, etc. All of this is happening between Shreveport, LA and Meridian, MS. It WILL be BNSF in 2004. I agree with all of you who have said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY!!! When will the STB agree with us?
I Just Recieved Jan 04 Train Mag And Noticed CN Is Buying D&MIR & B&LE
What Does CN Want With B&LE I Dont Know But I Can See D&MIR
B&LE Doesnt Connect With Any Main Lines
Actually I Thought Conrail Owned B&LE But I Guess I Was Wrong.
Also There Was Talk About BNSF & CNIC Mergeing A While Back
I Never Knew CN Was Canadas Conrail
As For Merridian Miss And Shreveport That Was An Old ICG Line
Then MIDSOUTH Took Over Now KCS Owns It But Theres A Lot Of
Double Stacks Through There BNSF Runs Them From Californy
To Ft Worth Texas Then KCS Crews And Some times BNSF Locos
Run Them From FT Worth To Merridian And NS Takes Over To Atlanta Some Times To
Mobile ALA Where There Ported To Ships . I Can Find Out More I Have Relatives Who Work For KCS And Freinds With 3 BNSF Workers
Look For The Abandoned rails topic
[8D]BNSF Has BEEN Trying To Get KCS For The Longest Cause Thatll Put Them Neck N Neck With UP And Give Them More Mileage
Hey you never know…CSX and UP??? BNSF and UP or none… (DING-DING-DING Round 1 MERGE!!)
BNSF - CN’s proposal was stopped by the STB’s moratorium on mergers. That moratorium ended over a year ago, but we haven’t heard a peep since about BNSF-CN, so I have my doubts that it’ll happen anytime soon. CN are still “digesting” WC and DMIR/BLE, so they’ll be gunshy for a while.
CN-KCS would be a logical next step, giving them single-carrier access to two points on each coast. After that, I’d say BNSF and CSX are both logical suitors for a megamerger with CN.
Kurt Katz may have been right after all - we’ll be left with just UP and NYS&W! [:o)]
UP will merge with BNSF,CSX,NS,CP,CN,KCS,MRL,andFerromex.The new color scheme will be Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Grey,and the new name will be Union Pacific.[V][:(!][:(][}:)][8]
[:(]I hope there AREN’T any more ‘mega-mergers.’ Merger, merger, merger–that’s all we read about in America these days. Will anybody actually remember that Santa Fe and Burlington Northern were two separate and distinct railroads, say 20 years from now? Will we remember the time when you could spot a Union Pacific or Norfolk & Western locomotives from a distance based on paint scheme alone? Mergers remind me of what the ‘malling of America’ did to quaint, attractive small downtowns in smaller towns everywhere–they sucked the life out of vibrant commercial areas in favor of having every possible store crammed under one giant roof–and telling the consumer this is as good as it possibly gets. HUMPF! I must be getting old and cranky, 'cause frankly, I could give two quacks about so-called improvements and “the bottom line.” Mergers be d*mned!
Rather than our nation(s) having to digest more macro-monopolies, it is my hope that the federales actually BREAK UP the current tri-duopoly. We need more than two systems out West, on the East Coast, and Canada. Specific to the West, break up UP into UP and SP, and break up BNSF into it’s obvious segments, with the caveat of trackage rights for at least three of the systems over the Northern, Central, and Southern corridors, respectively.
Conrail shared assets will launch a bloodless coup against its 2 owners and we will once again see the “SD80MAC QUALITY” paint scheme rule the East! [:)][:)][:)]
UP SHOULD MERGE WITH CSX, CP, BC RAIL, CONRAIL, AND KCS!!![ UP SHOULD RRRRUUUULLLLLEEEEE!!] BNSF SHOULD ONLY MERGE WITH NS AND CN !!!..
I have susspion that BNSF will merge with CN RAIL with in 2or 3 yrs
I would suspect the next merger will unfortunately be KCS getting swallowed by either CN/IC or BNSF, wouldn’t that be a thorn in UP’s side having to hand all that Larado/Mexican traffic to the BNSF (TFM). I sure hope none of 'em happen though, I’ve always been a fan of KCS since I was a little kid. As for huge mergers, UP and CSX are actually a better fit than UP and NS. Would probably wind up eventually as UP,CSX,CP and BNSF,CN,NS,KCS. Jeeze it scares the heck out of me just typing it out like that. Can you imagine the transportation mess we’d have after that?
id guess the Borg and BNSF would carve up KCS like NS and CSX did to Conrail
The biggest four institutional investors in BNSF, are also the biggest four institutional investors in KCS/NaftaRail, CSX, and CN. Follow the money and do the math! Anschutz Corp. has been the biggest institutional investor in UP ever since the UP/SP merger, and has been steadily buying bigger chunks of stock in both CP, NS, and FerroMex. Although individual executives may have many friends and business associates in various of the opposing camps (A lot of BNSF execs like many of the NS execs, etc.), the rapidly evolving changes in major stock ownership percentages by the big multi-billion dollar institutional investors seem to be pointing the way towards Wall Street’s preferred combinations leading towards two large continent-wide mega-systems (with many more new short-line spin-offs feeding low-margin traffic to the mainlines of the two resultant mega-systems), so that the major mainline mega-systems will finally earn their needed cost-of-capital AND have the massive savings (from far fewer mainline interchanges AND far fewer top and middle level management personnel) lead towards an eventual operating ratio in the 50 percent range! (CN/IC is already down to 64 percent!)
Best Wishes from Ross R. Moore, Jr.
I agree completely with you jhhtrainsplanes (then again, you’re always right anyway)! As a concerned citizen, mergers are bad. As a railfan, mergers are worse. Seriously, does anybody see anything ironic with a railroad called Canadian National going to the Gulf of Mexico?![%-)]
All mergers do are give me fewer paint schemes to look at, and increase my daily alotment of BNSF Heritage II! Of course, as you can probably tell from my earlier postings on the forum, I like Union Pacific. But I like Union Pacific, not UP/CP/CSX/whatever!!! What would we call it anyway? Chesapeake Canadian Union and Pacific. Somehow I don’t like CCU&P as much as the current railroads! It seems the only railroads that are safe are Union Pacific (it’s at the top of the merger food-chain, it seems) and the Cumbres and Toltec (nobody wants a narrow gauge line with four percent grades and 20 degree turns)! (Oh yeah–they’re going to have a tough time merging my model railroad into their systems!) But humor asside, this is going to far!!! The STB (and before it the ICC) exists to prevent monopolies, but if these megamergers happen, there will be a lot more captive shippers, not to mention a lot of railfans who miss the old lines. However, there will be one good thing in all of this: Classic Trains will have a lot more things to talk about in Fallen Flags Remembered. Is this what we want? Certainly not. We don’t want the next generation of railfans to say, “I’m a CCU&P fan,” now do we? The mighty Pennsylvani
I look for the BNSF to swallow up the KCS. The UP needs to get its house in order before any more merger talk. When I worked for the Norfolk & Western back in the early 70s, I worked with a fellow who told me that someday there would only be 4-5 major RRs in the USA. Back then I thought to myself what has he been smokin?? But what a visionary, I have long since lost touch with all of the guys I worked with back then but I wish I could run across Bill and hear what his thoughts are now.
Well , …No matter how I voted , The way that I’m seeing things now , Is that being from Wisconsin the class 1s are starting to look like we’re living in Canada now . With the golden rodent & the wet noodle roaming around all over kind of makes me lose my appetite a little. But I’ll survive. I voted UP / NS , To make the east /west conection a little more uniform like.