Kansas City Southern's Michael R. Haverty Named Railway Age Railroader of the Year.

Publishing & Transportation Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2001

Robert P. DeMarco, publisher of Railway Age, the railroad industry's leading trade journal, has announced that Michael R. Haverty, president and CEO of Kansas City Southern Railway and Chairman of Kansas City Southern Industries, has been named the magazine's Railroader of the Year. The award will be presented at the March meeting of the Western Railway Club on Tuesday, March 20, 2001, at the Union League Club of Chicago.

"Historians who years from now will be writing about the railroad industry as it exists today will probably use words like `consolidation' and `cost cutting' to set the general tone for what they say," said DeMarco. "But if they will be looking for examples of leaders who spent the bulk of their careers building, whether it was infrastructure or new business, the name Mike Haverty will most likely surface."

Haverty is described by Railway Age as "an independent thinker who has often cast aside the doubts of those who say `it can't be done.' He has spearheaded bold initiatives, often under intense criticism. He has almost always proven his critics wrong, particularly in taking the bold step that proved to be the keystone of the NAFTA Railway."

Haverty is a fourth-generation railroader from a blue-collar family. His great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant who came over from Galway in 1860, laid track in Atchison, Kansas, on the Central Branch of the Union Pacific. He and many other Irish immigrants were recruited by the UP to help build America's mushrooming railroad system. Haverty's grandfather and father were both Missouri Pacific conductors.

Haverty, a native of Atchison, embarked on his railroad career as a Missouri Pacific brakeman on June 11, 1963, his 19th birthday. He completed the railroad's management training program in 1967. In 1970, he moved to the Santa Fe, where he held several operating positions before being named president and chief operating officer in 1989. He was appointed president and CEO of Kansas City Southern Railway in 1995, and added the title of chairman of Kansas City Southern Industries on January 1.

Among his many accomplishments, Haverty is credited with spearheading the landmark 1990 deal that put J. B. Hunt truck trailers on Santa Fe intermodal trains. At KCS, he was instrumental in forming the partnership with Mexican shipping giant Transportacion Maritima Mexicana that successfully bid on the government-owned Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico (Mexican National Railway) Northeast lines in 1996. The resulting private railroad company, Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), is one of North America's most successful freight railroads. KCS described TFM in its third-quarter 2000 financial statement as "an incredible growth story," with revenues and operating profit increasing 24% and 45%, respectively, over 1999. Equity earnings from TFM for the first nine months of 2000 increased 300% over the prior-year period. TFM is the Mexican component of the NAFTA Railway, which stretches from Chicago to Mexico City via the border gateway at Laredo, Texas, and which also includes the KCS, Gateway Western, and Texas-Mexican railroads.

KCS, in partnership with MiJack Products, is currently involved in a similar privatization venture in Panama, where it is preparing to open the Panama Canal Railway Co. to intermodal and passenger traffic later this year.

Railway Age is a monthly magazine circulated at the management levels of North American freight and passenger railroads. Published since 1876, it is the transportation industry's oldest trade magazine. Railway Age's complete story on Mike Haverty can be accessed at the magazine's website, www.railwayage.com.