Business Wire, July 25, 2010
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Southern (KCS) (NYSE:KSU) today reported that its Mexican
subsidiary, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (KCSM) has
worked throughout the weekend on the Anahuac Bridge and re-opened the
bridge at 5:55 p.m. on Saturday, July 24. KCSM began running trains on
the re-opened line immediately.
If there is no settlement resulting from trains operating over the
bridges approaches, KCSM expects to operate up to 25 to 30 trains over
the Nuevo Laredo gateway by late Monday night, and plans to remove all
service embargos that were established on July 3 in the aftermath of
Hurricane Alex at that time.
We are very pleased to have the Nuevo Laredo gateway opened again for
cross border traffic, said KCS president and chief operating officer
Dave Starling. Given the magnitude of the damage to this bridge,
coupled with the difficult conditions under which our crews had to work,
it is a great accomplishment that we were able to put the Anahuac Bridge
back into service this weekend and plan to lift the embargos tomorrow
night.
Rail service in northern Mexico was disrupted for all carriers as a
result of Hurricane Alex, which made landfall in northeast Mexico on
June 30. Highway infrastructure throughout northern Mexico also was
severely damaged. The hurricane caused significant track damage around
the Monterrey and Saltillo areas as well as on the lines to Nuevo Laredo
and Matamoros.
The disruption of service caused by Hurricane Alex has been very
significant; however, our team has worked very hard to restore service
to our customers as quickly as possible, said KCSM president and
executive representative Jose Zozaya. We will continue to work very
closely with each of our customers to resume the normal flow of traffic
to their facilities.
For further service status updates, please refer to the KCS Recent News
window on the home page of www.kcsouthern.com.
Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., KCS is a transportation holding
company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama.
Its primary U.S. holding is The Kansas City Southern Railway Company,
serving the central and south central U.S. Its international holdings
include KCSM, serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port
cities of Lzaro Crdenas, Tampico and Veracruz, and a 50 percent
interest in Panama Canal Railway Company, providing ocean-to-ocean
freight and passenger service along the Panama Canal. Kansas City
Southern’s North American rail holdings and strategic alliances are
primary components of a NAFTA Railway system, linking the commercial and
industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Statements about future results made in this news release constitute
forward-looking statements that may be identified by the use of words
like believe, expect, anticipate and project. Forward-looking
statements reflect managements good-faith evaluation of information
currently available. However, such statements are dependent on
and, therefore, can be influenced by, a number of external variables
over which management has little or no control, including: domestic and
international economic conditions; interest rates; the business
environment in industries that produce and consume rail freight;
competition and consolidation within the transportation industry;
fluctuation in prices or availability of key materials, in particular
diesel fuel; labor difficulties, including strikes and work stoppages;
credit risk of customers and counterparties and their failure to meet
their financial obligation; the outcome of claims and litigation;
legislative and regulatory developments; political and economic
conditions in Mexico and the level of trade between the United States
and Mexico; changes in securities and capital markets; disruptions to
the Companys technology infrastructure, including its computer systems;
natural events such as severe weather, hurricanes and floods; acts of
terrorism or risk of terrorist activities; and war or risk of war. For
more discussion about each risk factor, see Part I, Item 1A Risk
Factors in each of KCSs and KCSMs Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2009, and any updates contained in subsequent
Quarterly Reports on Forms 10-Q. Forward-looking statements are
not, and should not be relied upon as, a guarantee of future performance
or results, nor will they necessarily prove to be accurate indications
of the times at or by which any such performance or results will be
achieved
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