WINONA, Minn. – A growth in train traffic through Winona as a result of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern railroad merger may impede fire trucks and other emergency vehicles but only marginally, Fire Chief Kurt Biddle said. The trains, even though as long as wo miles, move at 40 mph and don’t block crossing for long, Biddle told the Winona Post. Merger documents filed with federal regulators suggest there may an average of 18 long-distance trains a day, compared with 12 now. But, Biddle noted, there were as mana s 26 trains a day during the oil boom. “You could live with that,” he said.
Earlier: Deal redux: Canadian Pacific-KCS to join
Rail numbers
Street crossing: 12 in Goodview, Minnesota City and Minnesota City.
Current CP through freights: 11.9 per day.
Projected CPKC trains: 18.1 per day.
Historic CP maxes: 26 per day.
Other railroads’ trains per day: Union Pacific, 2; CP southern Minnesota branch, 2; Amtrak, 2.
Biddle. Fire chief. Sees local yard switching is the greater issue has with trains. That problem, he said, has been largely addressed with warning lights to train engineers at the Mankato Avenue crossing on the Far East End.