The Kansas City Southern RR goes WAY South

Plans are afoot to make Kansas City an "inland port" to be called the Kansas City SmartPort".

WND has reported that Kansas City SmartPort plans to utilize deep-sea Mexican ports such as Lazaro Cardenas to unload containers from China and the Far East as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement super-highway plan. WND obtained, via a Missouri Sunshine Law request, an internal spreadsheet analysis prepared by the port project,

The North American Free Trade Agreement super-highway plan?

Supposedly, all the containers unloaded in the Mexican port(s) will be shipped via railroad -- The Kansas City Southern RR -- and not on Mexican trucks. The LC to KC corridor is a rail corridor ONLY they claim, but hidden deep in the document is plans for truck traffic... Mexican trucks. Adding some fuel to this fire is the fact that the Kansas City Southern acquired the Mexican railroad that served the port of Lazaro Cardenas last year.

What are a few of the things wrong with this picture?

First, we already have sufficient container ports, railroads and highways to handle our container traffic. So why a Mexican corridor? Cheap labor that doesn't need to sneak across our borders comes to mind.

Secondly, containers scheduled to be inspected in this "Kansas City SmartPort" leaves hundreds of miles of railroad inside America where a short stop by any train can result in the unloading of whatever type of contraband you may ever wish for.... Drugs, illegals, terrorists, even a few A-bombs.

Additionally, containers offloaded in Mexico will not be subject to inspection by American authorities, so containers with whatever nasty stuff that would have been detected in American ports will enter Mexico without problem, with the contents being later ferried across our wide-open borders at any future time or place.

It will also allow for Mexican trucks on our highways. Hundreds of them. Uninspected and uninsured, accidents waiting to happen, with drivers that you -- given the chance -- would avoid like the plague.

To me, this deal looks bad from every angle.