Houston leaders express skepticism toward railroad merger: 'You're talking about more trains that will impact us'

City of Houston officials believe that a major railroad merger that’s expected to bring more trains to the U.S.’s fourth largest city could be detrimental to some residents, Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported.

According to KTRK, city leaders fear the merger of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) would add to traffic woes caused by trains that currently come through Houston. 

"If this merger goes through, you're talking about more trains that will impact us, the emergency EMS vehicles ... and that we do not need,” Houston City Councilman Robert Gallegos, whose district has a lot of railroad crossings, said, the station reported. "Year to date, we have over 900 cases of where EMS vehicles could not get through because of stalled trains."

Per KTRK, CP’s merger webpage explained that paperwork was initially filed on Oct. 29, 2021, and the combined network would bring about over 20,000 miles of track throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Samuel Peña, the city’s fire chief, added to Gallegos’ assertions that the merger poses a public safety issue by pointing out how close to 100 EMS vehicles were affected by blocked crossings in September, the station reported.

The chief told KTRK that crews had to resort to finding alternative routes or reaching out to other fire stations.

"It's not only a nuisance for commuters and residents of this area, especially on the East End,” Peña said in the report. “But it's also a public safety issue for us."

Other railroad companies have expressed their concerns regarding the merger.

Trains.com reported representatives from Union Pacific (UP) and BNSF Railway last month testified in Washington, D.C. that CP and KCS together would create unnecessary gridlock in Houston despite the latter two saying the city bears the capacity for additional trains.

“We should view the step-function change in merger-related volume,” UP senior vice president of the Harriman Dispatch Center and network planning John Turner said in the report. “Failing to adequately prepare and plan and acknowledge these risks dooms us to repeat history.”

Longtime East End resident Jackie Navarro shares city leaders’ fear about an increase in railroad traffic, which is a common sight on her side of town, KTRK reported.

"If they're bringing more … that's going to be a huge potential problem for a lot of people,” Navarro told the station.

Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported earlier this year that business owners in the area and the Fifth Ward to the north were frustrated with the trains as well.