Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Railroad
The Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Railroad (CPKC) was created when Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railroads merged in 2023.
The Kansas City Southern Railroad started as the Kansas City Suburban Belt Railway, founded by Arthur Stilwell and Edward L. Martin in 1887. In 1890 the Kansas City Suburban Belt Railway began operation, serving the Argentine District in Kansas City, Kansas; Independence, Missouri; and the riverside commercial and industrial districts of Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas City Suburban Belt Railway
In 1897, Stilwell completed the Kansas City, Pittsburg, and Gulf Railroad Company with a route running from Kansas City to Shreveport, Louisiana, terminating at Port Arthur, Texas, which is named for him. Some of the original shops and yards were located in Pittsburg, Kansas, covering about 300 acres and employing nearly 1300 people.
In March 1900, the name was changed to the Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS.)
By 1914 Kansas City Southern owned the separate entities of the Arkansas Western Railway Company, Fort Smith & Van Buren Railway Company, Kansas City, Shreveport & Gulf Railway Company, the Kansas City, Shreveport & Gulf Terminal Company, the Maywood & Sugar Creek Railway Company, the Port Arthur Canal & Dock Company, the Poteau Valley Railroad Company, the Texarkana & Fort Smith Railway Company, the Arkansas Western Railway Company, the Glenn Pool Tank Line Company, the Joplin Union Depot Company, the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, and the Kansas City Southern Elevator Company.
Kansas City Southern Railroad shops in Pittsburg, Kansas.
In 1939 the Kansas City Southern Railway acquired the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway, providing a route extending from Dallas, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, with access to areas northeast of Shreveport into Minden, Louisiana, and Hope, Arkansas, and a link between Kansas City and New Orleans.
In 1940, the Kansas City Southern Railway offered luxury passenger service between Kansas City and New Orleans on the Southern Belle. This service was discontinued in 1969.
In 1994 the railway acquired the MidSouth Rail Corporation extending Kansas City Southern Railway’s service territory to Meridian, Mississippi; Counce, Tennessee; and Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama, with trackage rights into Gulfport, Mississippi. The line from Dallas, Texas, to Meridian became the Meridian Speedway, considered the premier rail corridor between the southeast and southwest.
During the mid-1990s, several large mergers in the rail industry threatened the Kansas City Southern’s viability. The company then planned to expand into Mexico. In 1995, the railway agreed with Grupo TMM, a Mexican-based ocean shipping and logistics company, and purchased 49% percent stock interest in MexRail Inc., owner of all the stock of Texas-Mexican Railway Company that operates between Laredo and Corpus Christi, Texas.
Texas Mexican Railway International Bridge in Laredo, Texas, courtesy of Flickr
In 1996, Kansas City Southern acquired the Gateway Western Railway Company, which operates between Kansas City and East St. Louis, Illinois. Two years later, the company invested in the Panama Canal Railway Company, which operated the first transcontinental railroad in the world. It provides passenger and freight transportation along the isthmus from Panama City to Colon, Panama.
The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS) is an American Class I railroad that operated today in ten midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The railroad hauled freight for seven major government and business sectors: agriculture and minerals, military, automotive, chemical and petroleum, energy, industrial and consumer products, and intermodal.
Kansas City Southern has the shortest north-south rail route between Kansas City, Missouri, and several key ports along the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Along with the Union Pacific railroad, Kansas City Southern is one of only two Class I railroads based in the United States that has not originated due to a merger between previously separate companies.
On April 20, 2021, the Canadian Pacific Railway announced that it was purchasing Kansas City Southern for $33.7 billion. It operated over a railroad system consisting of 3,984 route miles extending south to the Mexico-United States border, at which point Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM) hauls freight into northeastern and central Mexico and to the Gulf of Mexico ports.
Kansas City Southern Railway, courtesy Wikipedia.
On September 12, 2021, Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) offered to buy Kansas City Southern for $31 billion, which was accepted. The two railroads operated independently until receiving approval for a merger of operations on March 15, 2023, which permitted the railroads to merge. The merger was completed on April 14, 2023.
Today, the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Railroad (CPKC) is the first single-line railway connecting the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It operates 20,000 miles of rail across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. As of April 2023, the company employed about 20,000 people. Its global headquarters is in Calgary, with its U.S. headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, and its Mexico headquarters in Mexico City and Monterrey.