New York New York USA - NEW YORK — The first new CPKC trains will be a pair of hotshots that link Chicago with Texas and Mexico City, hauling Midwestern meat southbound and Mexican-grown fruits and vegetables northbound.
 
CPKC can begin offering single-line service as early as 14 Apr 2023 the date that CP will gain control of KCS thanks to yesterday's regulatory approval of their merger.
 
CP CEO Keith Creel says CP and KCS have been encouraged by the success of the interline premium service test trains they have run with refrigerated and frozen products between Mexico and Chicago.
 
"We've had test moves in both. You can anticipate that the first train pair at the end of April, beginning of May will be running between Chicago and Mexico City. It's going to be train 181," Creel told an investor conference this morning.
 
CPKC will offer the first cross-border intermodal service for perishable shipments, the railroads have said.
 
Hundreds of trucks cross the border at Laredo, Texas, every day carrying refrigerated and frozen cargo.
 
Trucks can spend two to three days at the border while their cargo is unloaded, inspected, and reloaded, Creel says.
 
CPKC aims to create a smoother and faster border crossing for its premium trains.
 
"We're on the verge of creating inland terminals with support of the Mexican regulator to allow those products, in this case beef or poultry, to be inspected inland and not stop at the border," Creel says.
 
"It's transformational."
 
The transit time for CPKC trains running from Chicago to Mexico City will be five to six days.
 
"A truck can't touch that," Creel says.
 
"Truck-like reliable service is what you need to take trucks off the road, or to realize the potential to take trucks off road. You've got to be reliable," Creel says.
 
CPKC won't take its eye off the service ball when the railways begin to mesh their operations, Creel says.
 
He pledged that the merger integration will go smoothly, unlike the megamergers of the 1990s.
 
"Service is what we provide to our customers. It's doing what you say you're going to do," Creel says.
 
"And if you don't have service you don't have a product to sell."
 
One of the benefits of having two years of regulatory review of the merger is that CP and KCS have had two years to plan combining the two companies, Creel says.
 
CPKC will first focus on getting the right people in place, Creel says.
 
The new CPKC executive team will be announced on Friday morning.
 
After that, Creel says CPKC will make sure they integrate the two railroads into one company and that service is seamless.
 
CPKC will celebrate the merger with a 14 Apr 2023 spike ceremony in Kansas City, the only point where the CP and KCS networks touch.
 
Creel defended Precision Scheduled Railroading, the low-cost operating model that has come under harsh criticism due to widespread layoffs and safety and service problems at the big U.S. railroads since 2017.
 
"How you do it matters. I've been running a PSR railroad for 27 years," Creel says.
 
The PSR fundamentals are about service, asset utilization, controlling costs, investing in safety, and developing people, he notes.
 
"If you do that right it's the right way to run a business," Creel says.
 
Creel spoke at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference.
 
Author unknown.