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Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana, the Kansas City Southernaffiliated operator of Mexico's Northeast Railroad concession, "will offer shippers choices that they have never had before," according to TFM Director Brad Skinner. Speaking at the seventh annual Transporte Internacional conference held here March 6-7, Skinner struck a cooperative note: "We will work with all U.S. railroads to convert truck to rail," he said. With the new "NAFTA highway," as Skinner called it, TFM says it intends to help all U.S. railroads grow.
"We do not intend to play the U.S. railroad game of someone winning and someone losing-a game that merely moves revenue around," said Skinner. "The reason we're not going to play games is that, unlike the U.S., where the rail economy is not growing at a significant rate, the rate of economic growth between the U.S. and Mexico exceeds 14% per year, and 88% of cross-border movement is truck-based. So it is possible to play a win-win game, and it is our intention to be a partner with everyone-railroads, intermodal truckers, third, parties, shippers."
Skinner offered some lofty projections for the Northeast concession. In the first year of operation, he said, revenue should grow to $351 million. By the...