Texas Mexican Railway: bridge to opportunity

Railway Age, March, 1997 by William C. Vantuono

Tex Mex also plans to upgrade its yard facilities at Laredo, through which 60% of all U.S.-Mexico rail traffic passes. This will complement the $900 million in planned improvements over five years on the Mexican side, which will include siding extensions, longer turnouts, yard capacity expansion, improved communications systems, and new rolling stock. The Northeast's Nuevo Laredo-Monterrey-Mexico City main line is, for the most part, in good condition, much of it equipped with welded rail, concrete ties, and new ballast, but it will still need improvements to bring it up to U.S. standards (see sidebar, p. 38).

To beef up its motive power, Tex Mex has leased 20 locomotives from KCS, 12 former MidSouth GP10s and eight KCS GP40s rebuilt by MotivePower Industries. The railroad "is in the best shape ever as far as motive power is concerned," says Fields, and it doesn't anticipate having to purchase or lease additional locomotives. Much of the new traffic 'on Tex Mex, says Fields, will use run-through and pooled power from KCS, UP, BNSF, and possibly NS, which connects with KCS at Meridian, Miss.

To augment its existing fleet of 1,400 freight cars, Tex Mex plans to acquire 30 hi-cube rotary gondolas. These will be used for moving scrap metal in and out of Mexico. It also is looking, possibly in partnership with the Port of Corpus Christi, to purchase or lease a fleet of covered gondolas for movement of coil steel. And 61 Thrall Car doublestack wells now out on lease will soon be rejoining the fleet. "We'll need them," says Fields.

GETTING ACROSS THE BORDER

Tex Mex currently operates across the U.S.-Mexico border in four six-hour windows of alternating direction (north and south) in interchange with the Northeast Railroad. Its daily car count averages between 1,500 and 2,000 loads. When TFM operations start up, this will change to a first-come, first-served arrangement, with no restriction on direction.

Under government control, operating efficiency has been a real problem. Northeast Railroad operators, for example, have been unable to determine in advance how many cars moving south for interchange they will be able to handle on the Mexican side on a given day. "We'll tell them in advance that we have, say, 500 or 600 cars ready to move," says Fields, "and usually, they don't know how many they can accept. But come start-up of TFM, that will change."

Under TFM, the complicated process of customs clearance is expected to become easier. EDI, instituted about a year ago, has helped to smooth the process somewhat. Tex Mex provides EDI data to U.S. Customs for roughly 95% of southbound loads. Cars coming north from Mexico lag a bit in this area; EDI data is available on about 65%. Pre-blocked, pre-cleared trains (such as those operated under UP's Despacho Previo program) have also helped speed the process.

Tex Mex has taken a major stride in improving information management, purchasing and installing TMM's SAP system for such internal accounting processes as car accounting. It is also phasing out the TOPS MIS system developed by Southern Pacific, and switching to a newer system used by KCS. This change, says Fields, will go a long way toward improving Tex Mex's ability to manage information for customers, freight forwarders, and connecting railroads.