southern type public traded as nyse ksu dow jones transportation average component founded 1962 key people david l. starling ceo & president revenue 2418m 2015 net income 438m 2015 total equity 3914m 2015 website www.kcsouthern.com kansas city southern is the parent company of the kansas city southern railway a class i railroad headquartered in the quality hill neighborhood of kansas city missouri usa . it is also sometimes known as the nafta railroad in reference to the north american free trade agreement because its operations carry goods between the midwestern united states and mexico . kansas city southern was founded in 1887 by arthur edward stilwell with the goal of connecting the u.s. heartland to the gulf of mexico . an early slogan for the company was the shortest route from kansas city to salt water . its original network linked kansas city with port arthur texas . although it remained financially strong it did not add routes until the 1930s when it expanded to louisiana . from 1940 to 1969 kcs offered luxury passenger service between kansas city and new orleans but ceased passenger operations due to the growing popularity of auto and air travel . kcs next large expansion did not take place until 1993 when it purchased the midsouth railroad which provided its first east west route connecting dallas texas to meridian mississippi . due to kcs geographic placement the railroad has benefited from the passage of nafta in 1995 . kcs attempted to purchase the southern pacific transportation company from southern pacific santa fe railroad company in 1988 but was defeated by the rio grande s parent company rio grande industries . 1 kcs is also part owner of the panama canal railway company which operates the panama canal railway . 2 see also edit kansas city southern de m xico panama canal railway william j. fleniken references edit strapac joseph july 1988 . kcs purchase attempt . pacific railnews 296 . p. 8 . kansas city southern company profiles external links edit official website v t e dow jones transportation average components alaska air group american airlines group avis budget group c. h. robinson csx delta air lines expeditors international fedex j. b. hunt jetblue airways kansas city southern kirby landstar system matson norfolk southern ryder southwest airlines union pacific united continental holdings united parcel service retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kansas city southern company & oldid 726702673 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangecompanies in the dow jones transportation averagecompanies based in kansas city missouri navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 23 june 2016 at 20 50 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view