Nostalgia & History > MPSF Instead of SPSF?

Interesting article in the September Trains Magazine regarding the failed Southern Pacific-Santa Fe merger.  What ultimately precipitated the coming of the SFSP merger were prior efforts by the Missouri Pacific to merge with the Santa Fe and when the Santa Fe rejected MP’s overtures, MP turned to the Union Pacific.  Santa Fe’s Chief Executive John Reed would go on to state that his most significant business mistake was not meeting with the MP to discuss a merger.  How would the existence of a “Missouri Pacific Santa Fe Railway” have changed the western landscape of railroading?  Could three rail networks west exist today if such a combination were completed in the early 1980s time frame?  What concession(s) would have been imposed by the ICC to receive successful approval for the MPSF merger?  What would the other systems have done to mitigate the effects of a MPSF railway?

The big question is would the MOP have been able to take over the ATSF the way they did the UP? And fornicate Santa Fe into the ground?

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All this business about mega-trains, the MOP did that thirty years ago, 17 mph average train speed, the MOP
did that as well.

Out 

The most interesting thing I can think of is BNSF would not have 3 routes ( one is trackage rights)  to the west coast, only one. 

An MP-Santa Fe merger would have forced an UP-SP merger at least a decade sooner. Kenefick wanted nothing to do with SP in the late '70's/early '80's but an MP-Santa Fe merger would have changed his mind.

Meanwhile BN would have probably, in a defensive position, requested trackage rights in any MP/SF or UP/SP merger and might have been eager to merge with WP and DRGW. Back then BN was very interested in access to Colorado and Utah coal mines located on DRGW. The next logical step would have been buying the WP for access to the Port of Stockton and the Bay Area.

Allen

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/20 10:47 by bradleymckay.

Jenks of MP and Claytor of Southern announced in April 1976 that the two railroads "had begun joint studies to determine the feasibility and advisability of combining under common corporate ownership and control." (That's how the New York Times reported it.) One wonders how the RRs of today might look if this across-the-Mississippi marriage had taken place.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/20 10:56 by ctillnc.