Kansas City Southern (KCS) announced today that the 21^st anniversary KCS Holiday Express program in partnership with The Salvation Army has raised over $280,000 to benefit The Salvation Army in 21 communities on the U.S. rail network. Those communities include Kansas City and Slater, Mo.; East St. Louis, Ill.; Pittsburg, Kan.; Ashdown and Mena, Ark.; Poteau and Stilwell, Okla.; Houston, Laredo, Port Arthur, Victoria and Wylie, Texas; Baton Rouge, DeQuincy, Gonzalez and Shreveport, La.; and Corinth, Jackson, Meridian and Vicksburg, Miss.

“KCS is honored to celebrate 21 years of Holiday Express with a fundraiser for The Salvation Army in 21 communities,” said KCS president and CEO Patrick J. Ottensmeyer. “As the pandemic continues, the fastest increasing area of need is for families who will be unable to pay their rent or mortgages and face eviction. The donations The Salvation Army will receive through the KCS Holiday Express will help keep families in their homes and keep hope marching on for them into 2022.”

Special thanks to our major sponsors, including Bartlett, a Savage Company; Deanne Porter and Patrick Ottensmeyer Family Foundation; Haverty Family Foundation; Husch Blackwell; Jane and Bob Druten; Jim and Janet Kennedy Charitable Trust and Google; Kansas City Southern Historical Society; Mi-Jack Products; RailPros; The Kansas City Southern Charitable Fund; Virginia Vollrath Hertenstein; Watco; and ZA Construction. A complete list of sponsors can be seen here on the KCS website.

Over 21 years, the charitable component of the KCS Holiday Express project has raised well over $2.6 million, which was donated to The Salvation Army at each scheduled train stop to help provide warm clothing and other necessities for children in need in the local community.

In the first 19 years, the KCS Holiday Express train stopped in 20 or more communities in five or six states between Thanksgiving and Christmas. At each stop, visitors could board the train, meet Santa and his elves and tour the inside of three cars of the festive six-car train. These events did not take place in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic.

Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., KCS is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holding is The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, serving the central and south-central U.S. KCS’ North American rail holdings and strategic alliances with other North American rail partners are primary components of a unique railway system, linking the commercial and industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

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