Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Railroad.
The Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railway (CPKC) was created when Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railways 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 operations, serving the Argentine District in Kansas City, Kansas, as well as 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, which ran from Kansas City to Shreveport, Louisiana, terminating at Port Arthur, Texas, named after him. Some of the original shops and yards were located in Pittsburg, Kansas, covering about 300 acres and employing nearly 1,300 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, which provided a route extending from Dallas, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, with access to areas northeast of Shreveport, including Minden, Louisiana, and Hope, Arkansas, as well as a link between Kansas City and New Orleans.
In 1940, the Kansas City Southern Railway offered luxury passenger service on the Southern Belle between Kansas City and New Orleans. 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 viability of the Kansas City Southern. 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 a 49% stock interest in MexRail Inc., the owner of all the stock of the Texas-Mexican Railway Company, which operates between Laredo and Corpus Christi, Texas.
Texas-Mexico 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 world’s first transcontinental railroad. 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 operates 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 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 have not originated from 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 that point, Kansas City Southern de Mexico (KCSM) hauled freight into northeastern and central Mexico and to the Gulf of Mexico ports.
Kansas City Southern Railway, courtesy of Wikipedia.
On September 12, 2021, Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) made an offer to acquire Kansas City Southern for $31 billion, which was subsequently accepted. The two railroads operated independently until receiving approval for a merger of operations on March 15, 2023, which permitted the merger. 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.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated September 2025.