Kansas City Southern Railway
The The Kansas City Southern Railway ( KCSR ) is an American railroad -Unternehmen.
The company is part of the Kansas City Southern group. Other railway companies in this group are the Kansas City Southern de México , formerly Grupo Transportacio Ferrovia Mexicana (TFM), the Texas Mexican Railway (TexMex), indirectly via Mexrail , the Meridian Speedway and the Panama Canal Railway Co. (PCRC) to 50%. The entire system is also marketed under the name NAFTA Railway . The company is based in Kansas City .
Route network
The route network of the Kansas City Southern Railway has a length of 5036 km. This company reaches from Kansas City from Chicago (via Trackage Rights ), Omaha (via Haulage Rights ) Shreveport , New Orleans , Meridian , Mobile , Port Arthur (Texas) and Birmingham (Alabama) .
There is a connection to the KCSM route network in Mexico via the Tex Mex .
history
The company's origins lie in Arthur E. Stillwell's plan to build a rail line from Kansas City to the Gulf of Mexico and build a deep-water port. To do this, he took control of several companies or had the necessary railway lines built. In 1897 the Gulf of Mexico was reached and the port of Port Arthur was built. In 1899 bankruptcy proceedings had to be initiated and a consortium led by EH Harriman , George Gould and the bankers Stillman and Kuhn bought the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad and the Kansas City Suburban Belt Railroad and founded the Kansas City Southern Railway in 1900.
In 1939 the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway was bought (it was fully integrated in 1992), so that the KCSR got a connection to New Orleans .
In 1961, Kansas City Southern Industries was founded as a holding company and renamed Kansas City Southern in 2002.
A stable, medium-sized system was operated until the 1990s. Pressured by mega-mergers from the Union Pacific and the BNSF , the company began to expand by purchasing regional railroad companies. In 1993 the MidSouth Rail Corporation was acquired. This gave the KCS a connection to Mississippi ( Meridian , Gulfport ) and Birmingham .
With the formation of NAFTA , the company saw an opportunity to become the premier transportation company in the heart of the United States. By acquiring stakes in Mexican companies, a route network was created that connected the previous network with Mexico City and the Pacific . The merger negotiations on the subsidiaries TFM and TexMex, which had been ongoing since 2004, were successfully concluded in 2005, so that they are now 100% owned by KCS. Furthermore, in December 2005 an agreement was made with the Norfolk Southern Railway on the use of the "Speedway" Shreveport - Meridian . For a 30% stake by NS in the route and the associated payment of around 260 million dollars, the route will be further improved and Norfolk Southern will receive exclusive rights of use for container and automotive delivery traffic.
The most famous passenger train on the Kansas City Southern Railway was the "Southern Belle" on the Kansas City - New Orleans line , which last ran in 1969.
More information
The company has 2,711 employees, 434 locomotives and 14,733 freight cars. Revenues in 2004 were $ 635.7 million.
Presidents of Kansas City Southern were
- Stuart R. Knott (1900-1905)
- Job A. Edson (1905-1918 & 1920-1927)
- Leonor F. Loree (1918–1920)
- Charles E. Johnston (1928-1938)
- Harvey C. Couch (1939)
- CP "Pete" Couch (1939–1941)
- William N. Deramus, Jr. (1941–1961)
- William N. Deramus III (1961–1973)
- Thomas S. Carter (1973–1986)
- William N. Deramus IV (1986–1990)
- Landon H. Rowland (1990-1991)
- George W. Edwards (1991-1995)
- Michael R. Haverty (1995-2005)
- Arthur L. Shoener (2005-2008)
- David L. Starling (2008-2015)
- Patrick J. Ottensmeyer (from 2015)
literature
- Fred W. Frailey: The Haywire becomes a Livewire . In: Trains . No. 10 . Kalmbach Publishing, October 2006, ISSN 0041-0934 , p. 28-39 .
