Nationwide — A company that owns railway in Sheldon wants to acquire Kansas City Southern. A federal board that regulates train acquisitions heard from Iowans for two hours on the night of September 6th, speaking out against the acquisition.
Michelle Solis Russell, of Davenport, called the silence from her own city council deafening.
Ahead of the public comment period, Canadian Pacific offered money to towns in exchange for not opposing the acquisition, including $10 Million promised to Davenport, $3 Million to both Bettendorf and Muscatine, and $750,000 to Le Claire.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board extended its public comment meeting into the night as speakers lined up to oppose Canadian Pacific’s expansion all the way to Mexico. Rebecca Howe is the president of the Merrill Hotel in Muscatine, one of the many railroad towns in eastern Iowa expecting to see some of the highest increases in train traffic.
Towns in eastern Iowa are anticipated to see the highest traffic increases nationally. An environmental study estimated an additional 15 trains per day, on average. The board is expected to decide whether to approve the deal by early next year.
Although this acquisition will not involve the railways in Sheldon, Canadian Pacific owns the railway that comes into, and terminates in Sheldon from the east. 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 Milwaukee Road, was then purchased by the Soo Road in 1986. Canadian Pacific took ownership of Soo. This was the first time Canadian Pacific owned the rail line. They sold the line to I&M Rail Link in 1997, whom then sold to Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern in 2002, who called the former I&M property, the “Iowa, Chicago & Eastern.” It was then sold back to Canadian Pacific in 2007.
