Washington, DC — The US Surface Transportation Board has approved the merger with another major railroad — of the company that owns the railroad that terminates in Sheldon. But it’s unlikely to affect Sheldon much.
The merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railroad will eventually triple train traffic through parts of eastern and southern Iowa. Board chair, Martin Oberman, talked about the decision in an online news conference.
Oberman says there has been much discussion about the consolidation of the industry — but the board found this to be a unique circumstance.
He says there are many gateways in the rail system that overlap and give shippers an option and this agreement will protect that.
Oberman says the benefits to the economy from the merger will be substantial.
Oberman also says safety was a factor as he says despite recent events — rail transportation has far fewer accident issues when shipping dangerous materials than shipping on the highway system. There were hearings in Iowa on the merger and that included people opposed to the increased traffic, noise and plans to shut off some rail crossings. With the merger, Canadian Pacific will now have trackage from Canada through the United States, and into Mexico.
Although this merger will not directly involve the rail lines in Sheldon, Canadian Pacific owns the railway that comes into Sheldon from the east and terminates here. It did not always terminate in Sheldon. The Iowa DOT tells us that it used to go through Boyden, Hull, Rock Valley, Inwood, and into South Dakota, but that line was abandoned in the 1980s.
The ownership of that line has had various owners over the years in Sheldon, passing back and forth to come to being owned by Canadian Pacific, for a second time. According to Wikipedia, this rail line in Sheldon was owned by the Milwaukee Road and was then purchased by the Soo Line in 1986. Canadian Pacific took ownership of Soo. That was the first time Canadian Pacific owned the rail line. They sold the line to I&M Rail Link in 1997, which was then sold to Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern in 2002. They called the former I&M line, the “Iowa, Chicago & Eastern.” It was then sold back to Canadian Pacific in 2007.
