From Trains.com: Kansas City Southern Railway by Matt Van Hattem Kansas City Southern operates 2,728 track miles in 11 central and southeastern states. The railroad stretches from its namesake city south through its hub of Shreveport, La., to Port Arthur, Texas, which it reached in 1897, and from New Orleans through Shreveport to Dallas-Fort Worth. On January 1, 1994, KCS acquired 1,197-mile MidSouth Rail Corp., a regional railroad composed of ex-ICG lines extending from Shreveport east to Gulfport, Meridian, and other Mississippi points as well as Birmingham, Ala. During the 1990s the railroad expanded its network with a series of acquisitions, agreements, and marketing alliances to encourage growth in north-south rail traffic after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Parent company Kansas City Southern Industries now owns all or part of three other railroads, which it markets as a single network called the Nafta Railway. Other railroads in the KCSI family are: Gateway Western Railway (GWWR), a 402-mile regional railroad linking East St. Louis, Ill. with Kansas City, created on January 9, 1990, a former ICG/GM&O line. KCS acquired the GWWR on May 5, 1997. Texas Mexican Railway, or Tex Mex, a 157-mile regional railroad linking Corpus Christi and Laredo, Texas, with trackage rights to Houston and Beaumont. KCSI acquired a 49% interest in Tex Mex in 1996, and uses the line to reach the eastern Mexican carrier, TFM, in which KCS also has an interest. Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana, or TFM, a 2,661-mile railway linking Laredo, Texas with Mexico City. TFM hauls 60% of all rail traffic crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The route, previously Mexico's Northeast Railway, was the first to be privatized by the Mexican government. KCSI purchased its 37% of TFM in 1997. KCSI also is part-owner of the 47.6-mile Panama Canal Railway, which dates from 1855. Commodities Major commodities hauled by Kansas City Southern are coal, petroleum, chemicals, grain and farm products, paper and forest products, and intermodal trailers and containers. KCS receives an average of five coal trains a day from BNSF and UP, delivering them to power plants across its system. Chemicals and petroleum from Louisiana and the Texas Gulf Coast are interchanged with other U.S. railroads for consumer markets in the Northeast and Southeast. Lumber and forest products originate from paper mills in the Southeast. Midwestern grain moves south to feed mills in the South Central U.S. and to Mexico. KCS shuttles intermodal trains across its east-west “Meridian Speedway,” handing them off to NS at Meridian, Miss. and BNSF at Alliance yard near Fort Worth, Texas. Boxcars of auto parts also ply the corridor between Meridian and Laredo, Texas. Facilities Major yards: Dallas, Texas, Kansas City, Mo. (Knoche), Shreveport, La. (Deramus) Locomotive shops: Shreveport, La. (Deramus) Car shops: Shreveport, La. (Deramus) Headquarters: Kansas City Southern Railway 114 West 11th Street Kansas City, MO 64105 (816) 983-1303 www.kcsi.com [ 11. November 2002, 03:25: Message edited by: friscobob ]
