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CP gauging interest in railroad track in 4 states
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Canadian Pacific Railway is looking into the possibility of selling 660 miles of track in South Dakota and three surrounding states, the railroad said Tuesday.
• The announcement came a day after CP said it was mothballing plans to extend its Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad network into the Powder River Basin to ship Wyoming coal to power plants in other states because of weakening demand for coal.
• The railroad did not directly link the two decisions. Spokesman Ed Greenberg told The Associated Press both decisions are part of CP's "focus on being a more competitive and efficient railroad."
• He declined to speculate on whether the 660 miles of track would be less profitable without the Powder River Basin business.
• CP in 2007 bought 2,500 miles of track and equipment from South Dakota-based DM&E and its subsidiaries for $1.5 billion. CP said in a Tuesday statement that it is "inviting expressions of interest" for track from Tracy, Minn., into South Dakota, and into Nebraska and Wyoming. The track is described as the "DM&E west end."
• "This portion of the CP network would be an attractive and highly viable opportunity for a low-cost operator," CP President and CEO E. Hunter Harrison said in the statement. "There is a strong long-term franchise here for an operator willing to maintain high-quality service and explore growth opportunities with existing and future customers."
• CP has made no decision on selling the track but wants to see what interest is there, Greenberg told the AP. The railroad did not announce a timeline for making a decision on the future of the track.
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Fatal SD fire was human-caused but not malicious
• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- The Rapid City Fire Department says a late-November apartment building blaze that killed four people was started by a resident but investigators do not believe it was malicious in nature.
• Officials have not released the cause of the Nov. 27 fire and say the investigation is continuing.
• Killed in the fire were 51-year-old Marcia Rock and three of her grandsons: 9-year-old Thomas Rosado, 5-year-old Dustin Rosado and 3-year-old Marquez Hawk (Continued on page 24)
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