Texas Mexican Railway

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Texas Mexican Railway
standard gauge
Previous gauge3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge

The Texas Mexican Railway (reporting mark TM) was a short line railroad in the U.S. state of Texas operating between Corpus Christi and the Texas Mexican Railway International Bridge in Laredo, Texas. It is often referred to as the Tex-Mex, or TexMex Railway.[4]

The railroad traces its roots back to the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Gauge Railroad, a narrow-gauge railroad established in 1875. In 1883, the line was extended over the Rio Grande and the Mexico–United States border. The railroad was purchased by the Mexican government in 1900, which controlled the railroad until 1982 when it was sold to Transportación Maritima Mexicana (TMM). In 1996, Kansas City Southern (KCS) became a 49% owner of the railroad, as part of a larger business deal. KCS bought out TMM in 2005 and made Tex-Mex a wholly owned and consolidated subsidiary of its Kansas City Southern Railway.

Canadian Pacific Railway purchased KCS in December 2021 for US$31 billion. On April 14, 2023, the railroads merged to form Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC). Lines originally operated by Tex-Mex are now a vital link in CPKC's rail network, the first and only to directly serve Canada, Mexico and the United States. One of the major arguments for the merger was that it would increase competition in the Chicago–Mexico corridor that had been dominated by Union Pacific and BNSF Railway.

History

19th century

Chartered in

San Antonio, Texas, and Sabine Pass, these expansions were never constructed. The small Galveston, Brazos and Colorado Railroad
was purchased in 1881 for a connection to Galveston, but a line was never built between the two railroads.

In 1883 a bridge was built across the Rio Grande to Nuevo Laredo, making the Tex-Mex the first Mexico–United States rail connection. This granted rail access for all of Northern Mexico to the Port of Corpus Christi, devastating international commerce in Brownsville in the lower Rio Grande Valley, and its deep water port, Los Brazos de Santiago. This rail connection also devastated the commercial navigation of the Rio Grande, between Rio Grande City, Camargo (Mexico), Brownsville, and Los Brazos de Santiago, located adjacent to the mouth of the Rio Grande.

It was not until

Union Pacific
and the Mexican government.

20th century

The Mexican government controlled the Tex-Mex from

standard gauge on July 17, 1902. In 1906 it bought the Texas Mexican Northern Railway, and in 1930, the San Diego and Gulf Railway. They also began operating a 19-mile (31 km) US government railroad from Corpus Christi to a naval air station in 1940
.

Ordered on April 22, 1938, seven

Whitcomb Locomotive Works diesel locomotives were delivered between August and November of 1939. While some steam locomotives were kept until 1946 or 1947, they were almost never used, and the Tex-Mex is considered to be the first railway in the world to dieselize.[5]

The railway briefly resumed passenger service from January 31, 1986, to June 18, 1989, with the Tex-Mex Express. The seasonal train ran on a 157-mile (253 km) route between Corpus Christi and Laredo with stops in Robstown, Alice, and Hebbronville, taking 4.5 hours. One daily round trip operated on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during the spring and summer.[6]

In

Regional Railroad of the Year that same year.[7]

21st century

In

Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana. In August 2004, KCS again purchased a controlling interest in Tex-Mex,[8] although they were held by a trust company until the Surface Transportation Board approved the move for January 2005.[9]

In 1996 Tex-Mex bought a 90 miles segment of unused/abandoned Southern Pacific trackage from Rosenberg to Victoria, TX. The line was dormant and unused by the TM until 2006 when they announced they would rebuild the line to avoid continued running on a circuitous

CTC signaling.[11][12][13]

On May 23, 2018, the Tex-Mex announced they were moving the point of interchange where the railroad met Kansas City Southern de Mexico (KCSM). For many years the interchange took place on the bridge connecting Mexico and the United States at Laredo, Texas where Mexican crews and American crews would change out. American crews working for Tex-Mex did not operate in Mexico and Mexican crews working for KCSM did not operate in the U.S. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) approved the Tex-Mex's request to allow Mexican crews to cross the border with their trains and operate 9 miles into the U.S. to the North Laredo switching yard. The Carrier asserted that this would relieve the congestion and road blockages by the long freight trains, which lasted for hours in Neuvo Laredo and in Laredo since the trains would no longer have to change crews on the border bridge. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET) objected to the use of Mexican crews in the United States and threatened to strike over the matter.[14] U.S. District Court Judge Diana Saldana enjoined the BLET from striking and ordered the parties to arbitrate the matter before an arbitrator. The arbitrator ruled on July 19, 2020, that the bargaining contracts between the Tex-Mex Railway and the BLET allowed the railroad the exclusive right to determine where the point of interchange would be. He noted that the FRA's decision to allow Mexican crews to operate into the United States was not before him, because that matter had previously been decided by the FRA and was not a part of the BLET's grievance.[15]

References

  1. ^ "Texas Mexican Railway".
  2. ^ "The Texas Mexican Railway Historical Marker".
  3. ^ "Texas Mexican Railway: Locomotives, Roster, Map".
  4. ^ "Texas Mexican Railway: Locomotives, Roster, Map".
  5. ISSN 1541-809X
    .
  6. ^ Ehrlich, Allison (May 27, 2021). "#TBT: In 1980s, the Tex-Mex Express train took passengers from Corpus Christi to Laredo". Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  7. ^ Al Dos Santos. "Texas Mexican Railway". Archived from the original on March 26, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2006.
  8. ^ "KC Southern agrees to buy Texas-Mexican Railway for $32.7M". www.bizjournals.com. Kansas City Business Journal. August 16, 2004. Archived from the original on January 2, 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  9. ^ Kansas City Southern. "The Texas Mexican Railway Company History". Archived from the original on March 12, 2006. Retrieved July 20, 2006.
  10. ^ "Kansas City Southern to route traffic onto "Macaroni Line" June 17". Retrieved October 26, 2009.[permanent dead link]
  11. ^ [1] Archived November 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "The Macaroni run". Victoria Advocate. June 18, 2009. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  13. ^ "KCS Macaroni Line Rebuild - a set on Flickr". Flickr.com. May 3, 2009. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  14. ^ "Rail News - BLET threatens Tex-Mex strike over KCS' crew replacement. For Railroad Career Professionals". Progressive Railroading. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  15. ^ bletsiteadmin (August 6, 2020). "Arbitrator approves replacing American crews with Mexican crews in Laredo | Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen". Retrieved November 5, 2022.
Preceded by
Regional Railroad of the Year

1998 		Succeeded by
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