Western Railroad Discussion > How come KCS doesn't have trackage in the Chicago Area?

What I find strange is that Kansas City Southern doesn't have trackage to Chicago. Chicago is considered one of the busiest railroad hubs. So how come KCS is the only class one railroad that doesn't go to Chicago?

railfaneric Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What I find strange is that Kansas City Southern
> doesn't have trackage to Chicago. Chicago is
> considered one of the busiest railroad hubs. So
> how come KCS is the only class one railroad that
> doesn't go to Chicago?


and just what line would they buy or get trackage rights on to get to Chicago?

Posted from iPhone

There was a time when a lot of the Class 1s didn't have lines to Chicago. Unlike the others, KCS never merged its way in. Its best chance probably would have been to buy the Chicago, Missouri & Western's Chicago entry when it went bankrupt, but SP did that instead.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/20 19:04 by toledopatch.

railfaneric Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What I find strange is that Kansas City Southern
> doesn't have trackage to Chicago. Chicago is
> considered one of the busiest railroad hubs. So
> how come KCS is the only class one railroad that
> doesn't go to Chicago?

Instead of trackage to Chicago, Kansas City Southern went to it's namesake city, Kansas City, the second busiest rail connection in the nation. Most of KCS' traffic is oriented north-south. Railroads like Chicago & Northwestern,, Chicago Burlington & Quincy, Chicago , Chicago Rock Island & Pacific, Chicago Great Western, Santa Fe, Norfolk & Western, Missouri Pacific and others, traditionally brought in any east west traffic to KCS thus negating the need to connect to Chicago.KCS also got a decent amount of traffic from the St. Louis area from MP, Saint Louis-San Francisco,NW traditionally. All this is to a large part the same today even with fewer and different players because of mergers over the last 50 or so years. Kansas City Southern has done pretty good despite not connecting to Chicago. So there you have it.

SantaFeRuss

For a railroad that was basically a KC to Nola and Pt. Arthur, Tex line, the KCS is a true success story.  I know, I was on the UP team that got blown out of the water when bidding against the KCS for the Laredo to Mexico City line being privatized by the Mexican government.  Mike Haverty, who ironically started his career with the MP, was the magician who transformed the "haywire" into a formidble competitor by winning the Mexican concession, developing the Shreveport- Meridian speedway with the NS, buying the TexMex, etc.  It is quite a story.  Check out Mr. Haverty and be amazed.

Mexrail

There was talk of a Chicago Great Western/ KCS merger in the 60's but the CGW went to the Northwestern instead.
JC

Posted from Android

Interesting note, Jason.  

It would have been quite the North-South railroad in the midwest.  

I spliced two maps together.  

Ted in UT

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railfaneric Wrote:

So
> how come KCS is the only class one railroad that
> doesn't go to Chicago?

Because of the industry fear that a KCS Chicago & Alton hook-up would have actually made sense.

We locals had high hopes in 2009 when the KCS business train ran to Chicago over the CP, that they were going to buy CP's KC-Chicago line.  Alas, it didn't happen.  They are still a friendly connection in KC though and interchange entire unit trains.

Andy

mexrail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For a railroad that was basically a KC to Nola and
> Pt. Arthur, Tex line, the KCS is a true success
> story.  I know, I was on the UP team that got
> blown out of the water when bidding against the
> KCS for the Laredo to Mexico City line being
> privatized by the Mexican government.  Mike
> Haverty, who ironically started his career with
> the MP, was the magician who transformed the
> "haywire" into a formidble competitor by winning
> the Mexican concession, developing the Shreveport-
> Meridian speedway with the NS, buying the TexMex,
> etc.  It is quite a story.  Check out Mr.
> Haverty and be amazed.
>
> Mexrail

Quite true, but the Speedway is a shadow of what it was 20 years ago when the KCS bought the Mexican lines.  In the early 2000s, seeing 20 trains daily between Shreveport and Meridian was common.  Today, seeing 12 daily is rare and seeing more than 4 of those in daylight is considered a good day.  I personally would like to see CP buy KCS and sell Dallas to Meridian to soneone else, or spin it off as an independent.   A CP + KCS railroad would be a true north-south transcon with almost no redundant lines.

Some railroads marketed the fact that they didn't send your traffic through the mess that was Chicago.
It could take up to 5 days for a car to get through Chicago. You could do it in 1 or 2 days in KC.

KCS does have a line all the way to Springfield, IL (the old Alton Route).  How much traffic does that line actually get as opposed to the line the branches down to East St. Louis at Roodhouse?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/20 15:25 by kbmiflyer.

KCS made an effort to add the Rock Island's Spine Line to its network, however were quickly outbid by Soo and C&NW.  In 1997, CP sold their Kansas city line to I&M Rail Link; did KCS ever consider this segment to Chicago?

Vicksburg_Route Wrote:
> Quite true, but the Speedway is a shadow of what
> it was 20 years ago when the KCS bought the
> Mexican lines.  In the early 2000s, seeing 20
> trains daily between Shreveport and Meridian was
> common.  Today, seeing 12 daily is rare and
> seeing more than 4 of those in daylight is
> considered a good day.  I personally would like
> to see CP buy KCS and sell Dallas to Meridian to
> soneone else, or spin it off as an independent. 
>  A CP + KCS railroad would be a true north-south
> transcon with almost no redundant lines.

The price to buy KCS, even with this week's down turn may too expensive for the CP.