(Kansas City Southern issued the following on July 25, 2010.)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Southern (KCS) today reported that its Mexican subsidiary, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (KCSM) has worked throughout the weekend on the Anahuac Bridge and re-opened the bridge at 5:55 p.m. on Saturday, July 24. KCSM began running trains on the re-opened line immediately.
If there is no settlement resulting from trains operating over the bridge’s approaches, KCSM expects to operate up to 25 to 30 trains over the Nuevo Laredo gateway by late Monday night, and plans to remove all service embargos that were established on July 3 in the aftermath of Hurricane Alex at that time.
“We are very pleased to have the Nuevo Laredo gateway opened again for cross border traffic,” said KCS president and chief operating officer Dave Starling. “Given the magnitude of the damage to this bridge, coupled with the difficult conditions under which our crews had to work, it is a great accomplishment that we were able to put the Anahuac Bridge back into service this weekend and plan to lift the embargos tomorrow night.”
Rail service in northern Mexico was disrupted for all carriers as a result of Hurricane Alex, which made landfall in northeast Mexico on June 30. Highway infrastructure throughout northern Mexico also was severely damaged. The hurricane caused significant track damage around the Monterrey and Saltillo areas as well as on the lines to Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros.
“The disruption of service caused by Hurricane Alex has been very significant; however, our team has worked very hard to restore service to our customers as quickly as possible,” said KCSM president and executive representative Jose Zozaya. “We will continue to work very closely with each of our customers to resume the normal flow of traffic to their facilities.”
For further service status updates, please refer to the KCS Recent News window on the home page of www.kcsouthern.com.
Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., KCS is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holding is The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, serving the central and south central U.S. Its international holdings include KCSM, serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port cities of Lazaro Cardenas, Tampico and Veracruz, and a 50 percent interest in Panama Canal Railway Company, providing ocean-to-ocean freight and passenger service along the Panama Canal. Kansas City Southern’s North American rail holdings and strategic alliances are primary components of a NAFTA Railway system, linking the commercial and industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.