Now that KCS has activated the old SP route to Victoria is there any thought to continuing on by purchasing the SP line from Victoria to Beeville then to Skidmore then to TM at Alice? This would give KCS their own track from Mexico to near Houston. What is the traffic load on the UP from Victoria to Robstown Junction? Is it near capacity that KCS having their own tracks be beneficial? I realize that lots of money would be required to establish service again and you would not be eliminating another 100 mile plus detour that was required before activating the Victoria-Rosenberg line.
KCS has no plans to reactivate the Victoria-Beeville-Alice corridor. The ex-SP south from Victoria to Coleto Creek is still owned by UP and used to access the Coleto Creek Power Plant- south from there the grade of the old SP r-o-w in many places has been partially built over by highway expansion projects.
The UP line from Victoria to Bloomington that the KCS uses I believe is now only used by KCS. From Bloomington to Robstown to line is very busy with UP, BNSF and KCS trains all sharing the same line- this does cause delays with trains but I don't think it is so bad that the KCS would rebuild any more abandoned SP track to Alice. The cost of truly re-engineering and rebuilding that would be a lot higher than what the KCS did between Rosenberg-Victoria (that r-o-w was very well preserved for rebuilding- unlike what you would encounter from Coleto Creek to Beeville down to Alice)
Another one of the benefits of rebuilding the Roseberg-Victoria segment was that it allowed the KCS to construct their own yard and intermodal terminal at Kendleton- something they did not have before (they operated into the PTRA North Yard- and still do in addition to Kendleton) that allowed them to grasp a better foothold on Houston traffic. It has paid immediate dividends with the Nissan and Schneider contracts and the facility is already undergoing another expansion.
Thanks for the update on the KCS/TM lines. I was aware of the use of the line to the Coleto power plant via the SPV maps. An arrangement to convey this portion to KCS could be worked out IF they wanted to activate the line. With highways overlaying part of the ROW there would be problems, however, since this area is sparsely populated land acquisition would not be too costly. There would be a lot of track to rebuild and without measuring it appears the old SP to Alice would be slightly longer than the current alignment. As a retired railroad executive it is nice to control your own destiny but at what cost? Since the line Robstown is nearing capacity passing sidings would be far cheaper than rebuilding the old SP line. It seems to me that a greater concern for KCS would be controlling their own destiny from Rosenberg through Houston, however, buying a line here would be cost prohibitive.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.