(The Associated Press circulated the following on January 20, 2009.)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Has Canadian Pacific Railway backed away from plans to extend the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern line to haul Wyoming coal?
Former DM&E President and CEO Kevin Schieffer seems to think so.
Schieffer recently told the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader newspaper that he left his job in October because he felt CP had made the expansion plan — his work focus for more than a decade — a low priority.
And he sounded notes of regret for the decision to sell the railroad, whose resuscitation from bankruptcy he orchestrated starting in 1986.
Schieffer said he “would be very happy to be a lot less liquid and building” the expansion.
A Canadian Pacific spokesman responded to Schieffer’s comments by saying that the expansion remains a viable plan under consideration.
“We’re weighing our options,” said Mike LoVecchio, CP’s senior manager of media relations.
Schieffer “is a private citizen now, and he’s entitled to his views,” LoVecchio said. “He does not have any insight into CP. He departed DM&E in the fall.”
Schieffer told the Argus-Leader that CP staff members who, at the time of the merger, favored proceeding with the expansion “had all been fired or reassigned.”
LoVecchio said the only senior staff member to depart CP since the announcement of the merger was Mike Lambert, former chief financial officer, who left the company “to pursue other interests.”
Olmsted County Commissioner Ken Brown, who represents the county on the Rochester Coalition group opposed to the expansion, was aware of Schieffer’s media statements.
However, Brown said he also heard “other reports that they (CP) are still actively engaged in acquiring land.
“So, what do you believe? I have no idea.”
Schieffer’s remarks are understandable, Brown said.
“I think he genuinely believed in the project. He’s got a lot invested in it,” Brown said. “It’s not a surprise that he would be disappointed.
“I’m assuming that they (CP) still are interested in pursuing it, and they’re kind of waiting for the right time. Just the general economic malaise tells you that demand is down.”
Whether CP intends to complete the coal line or not, Mayo Clinic and the coalition have to fight it like it might, said Chris Gade, a Mayo spokesman.
“What else can we do?” he said. “We just have to, frankly, assume it is going to happen until we get a definitive answer.”