Kansas City Southern (KCS) on Oct. 31 held a binational groundbreaking ceremony for a second international rail bridge spanning the Rio Grande River from Laredo, Tex., to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) names Zach Trogdon Chief of Public Transportation. Also, Kansas City Southern de Mexico (KCSM) President, General Manager and Executive Representative Oscar Del Cueto Cuevas is appointed President of the Mexican Railway Association (AMF).
First Responders Children’s Foundation (FRCF), in partnership with CSX, announces recipients of the 2022 CSX Pride in Service Scholarship. Also, Union Pacific (UP) announces extension of Carta Porte grace period for Mexico shipments; and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts discusses proposed rail park with leaders in Lincoln County.
Construction is expected to start in October or November on a second Kansas City Southern international rail bridge at the U.S./Mexico border connecting the border cities of Laredo, Tex. and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
BNSF is asking the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to impose conditions that preserve competition, particularly at the U.S.-Mexico border, if the proposed Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger is approved.
Railway Age’s 2022 Railroader of the Year Award, our 59th annual, goes to two exemplary and visionary North American rail industry leaders: Canadian Pacific President and Chief Executive Officer Keith Creel, and Kansas City Southern President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick J. Ottensmeyer. The two are reconfiguring the North American rail landscape by completing, if all goes as planned, what will be the first Class I merger in more than 20 years, and creating North America’s first transnational freight railroad, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, or CPKC.
In a July 19 press release, the Government of Mexico, through the Ministries of Energy, Finance and the Tax Administration Service (SAT), made public a list of active and suspended taxpayers on its Importers’ Registry, indicating that the suspensions were made due to several taxpayers apparently not being in full compliance with requirements under its Foreign Trade Rules. Among them were Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM) and Grupo Mexico’s Ferrosur rail freight subsidiary.
CN on April 21 submitted to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board a prefiling notification of its intent to file an application seeking authority to combine with Kansas City Southern “further to CN’s superior proposal for a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $33.7 billion, or $325 per share.”
Two first-quarter 2021 surveys of rail shippers on pricing and business outlook as well as equipment needs conducted by Cowen and Company analysts Jason Seidl (Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor), Matt Elkott and Elliot Alper indicate that, compared with the previous quarter, Class I railroad customers are anticipating somewhat higher rate increases, and a slight decline in new railcar demand.
Rail shippers in fourth-quarter 2020 expected price increases of 3.2% (up 10bps sequentially), and their sub-group of railcar buyers raised order expectations modestly, according to two surveys conducted by Cowen and Company analysts Jason H. Seidl (Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor), Matt Elkott and Elliot Alper.
