Chess Game for Railroad Real Estate (UPDATED) April 23, 2021 Chess Game for Railroad Real Estate (UPDATED) Written by Jim Blaze, Contributing Editor A bidding war has broken out for the Kansas City Southern, but it’s actually more like a chess game. Here are some observations about what it all could mean, especially in terms of railroad “real estate,” from my economist observation post. By now, we all know the basics: It started back on March 21 as a bold expansion bid by the sixth-largest carrier, Canadian Pacific. CP and KCS, smallest of the “Big 7” Class I’s, negotiated a two-party deal to acquire a north-south track network connecting a core of six Canadian provinces (with about 12,500 route-miles) with a core of important Mexican northeastern and central states (districts) served by Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. The Mexican franchise covers about 2,261 miles. In the middle of this geography is the Kansas City Southern rail network covering about 3,400 route-miles in 10 US states. Its primary terminals include Kansas City, Shreveport, New Orleans, Dallas and Houston.