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Kansas City Southern’s newly rehabilitated Victoria-to-Rosenberg, Texas, line and new international intermodal service already are generating traffic in a corridor between Houston and points in Mexico.

KCS subsidiary Kansas City Southern Railway Co. (KCSR) has originated or terminated more than 3,000 carloads at Houston’s Port Terminal Railroad Association so far this year compared with about 1,400 carloads in the same 2008 period. Most of the traffic increase occurred after the rehabilitated line opened in May, KCS officials said in an item posted on the “KCS News” Web site last week.

KCS now offers a truck-competitive, single-line intermodal service between Houston and Mexico’s industrial heartland, including Monterrey, San Luis Potosi and Mexico City. The Class I’s line is 30 percent shorter than the Ferromex/Union Pacific Railroad route over the Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras gateway and only 7 percent longer than the existing highway route, KCS officials said. KCSR now is beginning to handle test loads between Houston and Lázaro Cárdenas.

KCS’ international intermodal corridor presents a “tremendous opportunity” for the Class I in a market that has never had truck-competitive intermodal service, said KCS Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Pat Ottensmeyer.