I can get onboard with that if we're talking the KCS trunk line. But what they've cobbled together over the past 20 years with MidSouth, Tex Mex, and TFM is just too spread out and reliant on other railroads to get from point A to B.

Of course, as it was told to me early in my career, if you want to predict future mergers, just look at where two railroads are already running together. So, I think you can pretty much do that for most parts of the KCS system already. The big sore thumb is the Gulfport Sub, which I think is more likely to get tossed to Watco than be any part of a big merger scheme or of interest to connecting Class 1 Canadian National.

I still scratch my head and wonder why they go to Mobile. Both it and Gulfport are ports which have big dreams of being something big someday, but someday is nowhere on the horizon. That's what 10-year leases are for-- let someone else take the gut punch while waiting for someday. I'm really surprised EHH didn't pull that one while at CN. And I promise, I didn't work for him, but was trained by some pretty hard folks along the way.



mook Wrote:
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> There's one place where KCS could fit: with CP.
> Don't know why those talks haven't happened yet.
> CN is a 3-coast rr. UP+something east (not
> necessarily a single railroad, as you note) and
> BNSF+something east would be likewise. CP+KCS
> would also be, with a bonus Mexican line if they
> can keep it.
>
> With 4 railroads, there would be a semblance of
> competition; with 3 there would be a possibility;
> with 2, none.