By Railfan & Railroad Staff

BATON ROUGE, La. — Canadian Pacific Railway officials said this week they would work with Amtrak to restore passenger rail service between New Orleans and Baton Rouge if their plan to acquire Kansas City Southern comes to fruition. 

On December 8, James Clements, senior vice president of strategic planning and technology transformation, met with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and other officials there to talk about establishing passenger service between the state’s two largest cities. CP said it would welcome at least one daily round trip and that service could be increased if track capacity was increased. 

“We look forward to the expansion and working with Amtrak to develop passenger service,” Clements said. “This is historic. We’re excited about what this does for our customers, and what this does for our communities.”  

Although the CP-KCS merger has yet to be approved — shareholders for both railroads were voting on it this week and the federal review is expected to last months — officials in Louisiana were already welcoming CP. Especially after the railroad’s announcement this week. 

“We are absolutely committed to working with the freight and passenger community,” said Governor Edwards. “I stand here to welcome Canadian Pacific to Louisiana and look forward to having a long, successful relationship with them. Now is the time to think big for transportation in our state.”