Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, doing business asCPKC, is a Class I railroad in North America that resulted from the merger of Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) on April 14, 2023. It is the first and currently the only single-line railway connecting Canada, Mexico, and the United States, operating approximately 32,000 kilometres (20,000mi) of rail across the three countries. CPKC is headquartered in Calgary and led by Keith Creel as President and CEO.
Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) announced on March 21, 2021, that it was planning to purchase Kansas City Southern (KCS) for US$29billion. A competing offer was made by Canadian National Railway (CN) on April 20, 2021, at $33.7billion.[1] CN's merger attempt was blocked by a ruling of the US Surface Transportation Board (STB) in August 2021 that the company could not use a voting trust to assume control of KCS, due to concerns about potentially reduced competition in the railroad industry.[2]
On September 12, 2021, KCS accepted a new $31billion offer from CP. Though CP's offer was lower than the offer made by CN, the STB permitted CP to use a voting trust to take control of KCS, as the deal did not have the same anti-competitive issues.[2] The voting trust allowed CP to become the beneficial owner of KCS in December 2021, but the two railroads operated independently until receiving approval for a merger of operations from the STB.[3][4]
Keith Creel, President and CEO of CP and future CEO of the merged company, chose the name for the new company as a way to honor the long history of the two companies.[5]
Union Pacific and BNSF Railway filed objections to the merger during hearings before the STB, where the two companies were concerned about CPKC's projected increase in traffic over the next few years and the impact of that increase on UP owned tracks that run through the Houston area (Houston, West Belt, East Belt, Beaumont, Harrisburg and Glidden Subdivisions), where both UP and BNSF operate a large amount of daily traffic. CPKC has trackage rights from Beaumont to Rosenberg.[6] CP and KCS defended their proposed merger during the hearings, arguing that Houston has sufficient capacity to support the projected increase in traffic. Along those lines, Keith Creel, argued during the hearings that at the west end of Englewood Yard, receiving and departure tracks can be lengthened to accommodate longer trains. UP disputed in part the arguments presented by CP, saying that although they have a yard expansion project, it could not proceed until the previous environmental problems were solved, due to the fact that the area around Englewood is contaminated with creosote (Decades ago, Southern Pacific operated a facility in Englewood for the creosote treatment of railroad ties, and accidental spills of creosote caused severe contamination in the neighborhoods surrounding the yard). The STB suggested, to mediate between the disputing parties, the possibility that, pending approval of the merger, KCS apply to UP for trackage rights from Texarkana to Laredo, via San Antonio and Austin to reroute some of its north-south traffic through there, bypassing Houston.[7]
The two companies demanded that CPKC perform construction work on new sidings on both the lines that meet in the Houston area and on Brownsville Subdivision between Placedo and Robstown, near Corpus Christi, where CPKC trains leave the UP tracks in South Texas.[8]
Metra also opposed the merger, along with a group of West suburban Chicago communities (DuPage County, Bartlett, Bensenville, Elgin, Itasca, Hanover Park, Roselle, Wood Dale and Schaumburg) on the Milwaukee West Line, arguing that the projected increase in traffic would bring delays in the provision of Metra's passenger rail service, as well as a decrease in the quality of life and the negative consequences on economic development in the communities located along the line.[9][10]
Despite all the objections raised at the hearings, the final approval of the merger came on March 15, 2023, and the merger was completed on April 14, 2023.[11][12][13]
CPKC #4567, a GE AC4400CW still in the gray scheme of KCS de Mexico, a scheme inherited from Transportadora Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), predecessor of KCSdeM.Two CPKC unit trains, one grain and another crude oil, meet up at Siloam Springs, Arkansas - with locomotives from both preceding railroads.
The merger created the first and only single-line railway connecting Canada, the U.S. and Mexico with an approximately 32,000-kilometre (20,000mi) network.[14] Fully integrating the two railroads is expected to take up to three years.[14]
Seven days after the merger, the company announced that it had landed its first major contract, handling Schneider National intermodal traffic between the U.S. and Mexico. On April 25, it signed a similar agreement with Knight-Swift.[15] The announcement was seen as backing up pre-merger projections that CPKC's single-line service would enable it to compete in the Chicago–Mexico corridor that had been dominated by the Union Pacific and BNSF.[16] In response, on April 24, Union Pacific responded by announcing a partnership with Canadian National Railway and Grupo México (owner of Ferromex and Ferrosur) to work together to accelerate the exchange of intermodal traffic between Mexico and Chicago or further north into Canada.[17]
On May 14, 2023, CPKC launched its new service "Mexico Midwest Express (MMX)", numbered I180 and I181, which is mainly oriented to intermodal and automobile transportation, and also provides an approximate travel time of 98 hours between Chicago and Kansas City to Monterrey and San Luis Potosi, shorter travel times than those offered by the "Falcon Premium" service of UP, CN and Grupo México.[18] Previously, and as part of preparatory moves for the day after the merger, CP and KCS launched a series of test interline services between the Lázaro Cárdenas Port in the Michoacán Mexican state, and the Bensenville Yard in Chicago.[19]
On June 28, 2023, CPKC announced the intent to jointly acquire with CSX Transportation the Meridian and Bigbee Railroad (MNBR). The MNBR creates a connection 168 miles (270km) between CSX in Montgomery, Alabama and Meridian, Mississippi, where it joins the Meridian Speedway westbound. Under the proposed agreement, CPKC would acquire the 50.4 miles (81.1km) segment of the line between Meridian and Myrtlewood, Alabama, so-called Western Line, while CSX will resume operations on the so-called Eastern Line, between Myrtlewood and Montgomery, terminating the lease currently in place with MNBR. MNBR will cease operating between Myrtlewood and Montgomery, although it may continue to operate between Meridian and Myrtlewood and serve existing customers on that segment of the line.[20] If approved by the STB, this would provide a direct connection between the two companies. In compensation, MNBR owner Genesee & Wyoming would receive CPKC properties in Alberta along with rights on CPKC lines.[21] The connection through the MNBR line will allow CSX traffic destined for Mexico to be delivered directly to CPKC, eliminating the need for a third intermediary railroad to move such traffic. Currently, CSX traffic bound for Mexico is exchanged with the Union Pacific in New Orleans, who then takes it to the cross-border gateway in Laredo, Texas, where it is delivered to CPKC.[22]
On April 14, 2024 and as part of the merger's first anniversary celebrations, steam locomotive CPR #2816, known as "The Empress" will be launched for a transnational tour along the CPKC rail network from Calgary to Mexico City.[23]
Operations
CPKC operates approximately 32,000 kilometres (20,000mi) of rail across Canada, Mexico and the United States.[14] As of April 2023, CPKC has around 20,000 employees.[14] CPKC has its global headquarters in Calgary, Alberta Canada with its U.S headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, and its Mexico headquarters in Mexico City and Monterrey.[24]
Company executives said that merging CP and KCS would be "straightforward" because the railroads only touch at Kansas City, and interchange volumes were relatively low, with about four trains per day as of September 2021. They also cited that the two companies largely used the same back-office information technology systems.[25]
The Canadian Pacific Railway, also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), was a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway was owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.
CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track, it is the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
Railroad classes are the system by which freight railroads are designated in the United States. Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$504,803,294 for Class I carriers and US$40,384,263 for Class II carriers.
The Kansas City Southern Railway Company was an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operated in 10 Midwestern and Southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. KCS had the shortest north-south rail route between Kansas City, Missouri, and several key ports along the Gulf of Mexico.
Kansas City Southern (KCS) was a transportation holding company with railroad investments in the United States, Mexico, and Panama that existed from 1887 to 2023. The KCS rail network included about 7,299 miles (11,747 km) of track in the U.S. and Mexico.
The Crescent is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and New Orleans. The 1,377-mile (2,216 km) route connects the Northeast to the Gulf Coast via the Appalachian Piedmont, with major stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; and Birmingham, Alabama.
Kansas City Southern de México, S.A. de C.V. was a Mexican railroad and operating subsidiary of Kansas City Southern (KCS). The company was founded in 1996 as Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana, a joint venture between KCS and Transportación Maritima Mexicana after the companies won a concession from the Mexican government to operate the 5,335-kilometer (3,315 mi) Northeast Railroad connecting Monterrey and Mexico City with a US port of entry at Laredo, Texas and seaports at Lázaro Cárdenas and Veracruz. In 2005, KCS bought out its partner's shares in the railroad, giving it full control.
The Milwaukee District North Line (MD-N) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois and its northern suburbs, running from Union Station to Fox Lake. Although Metra does not refer to any of its lines by color, the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District North line are pale "Hiawatha Orange" in honor of the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha passenger trains.
The Milwaukee District West Line (MD-W) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois, and its western suburbs. Metra does not refer to any of its lines by a particular color, but the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District West line are dark "Arrow Yellow," honoring the Milwaukee Road's Arrow passenger train. Trains are dispatched from the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway's American headquarters in Minneapolis.
Railroader of the Year is an annual award presented to a North American railroad industry worker by trade journal Railway Age. The award was first presented in 1964 by trade journal Modern Railroads and has continued through the magazine acquisition in 1992 to the present.
The Texas Mexican Railway was a short line railroad in the U.S. state of Texas operating between Corpus Christi and the Texas Mexican Railway International Bridge in Laredo, Texas. It is often referred to as the Tex-Mex, or TexMex Railway.
The Meridian and Bigbee Railroad is a Class III railroad that operates over 168 miles (270 km) of track between Meridian, Mississippi and Burkville, Alabama. Additionally, the M&B has trackage rights over CSX from Burkville to Montgomery, Alabama. MNBR operates with a 286,000-pound railcar loading capacity.
The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis is a Class III switching and terminal railroad that handles traffic in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is co-owned by five of the six Class I railroads that reach the city: BNSF, Canadian National, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific. The railroad also serves Amtrak and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
The Texas Mexican Railway International Bridge is an international railway bridge across the Rio Grande and U.S.-Mexico border between Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, the only rail link between these cities. Owned and operated by CPKC, the single-track bridge is the busiest rail border crossing in North America. It is also known as the Laredo International Railway Bridge and Puente Negro.
The Arkansas Valley and Western Railway (AV&W) was built as a short line railroad operating within the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1902 to link the city of Tulsa with the main transcontinental line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) at Avard. The line was built in sections, initially from AV&W Jct. to Steen (Enid) during 1902-03. In 1904 it was extended westward to the junction with AT&SF at Avard. On July 19, 1907, the railroad was purchased by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, who operated it until November 21, 1980, when the Frisco was acquired by Burlington Northern Railroad.
The Meridian Speedway is a 320-mile (510 km) span of railroad track between Shreveport, Louisiana and Meridian, Mississippi. An important rail link between the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, it is operated as a joint venture of Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), which owns 70% of the partnership; and Alabama Great Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Railway (NS).
Keith Creel is the president and chief executive officer of Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
The history of the Canadian Pacific Railway dates back to 1873. Together with the Canadian Confederation, the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task originally undertaken as the "National Dream" by the Conservative government of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald. He was helped by Alexander Tilloch Galt, who was the owner of the North Western Coal and Navigation Company. British Columbia, a four-month sea voyage away from the East Coast, had insisted upon a land transport link to the East as a condition for joining Confederation, after initially requesting a wagon road.
Railroads in italics meet the revenue specifications for Class I status, but are not technically Class I railroads due to being passenger-only railroads with no freight component.
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