The Kansas City Southern Holiday Express schedules a visit to Mansfield on November 29th. Plan to bring the children to tour the train and perhaps meet with Santa and his elves.
The 2022 KCS Holiday Express train will return to the rails for the first time since the start of the pandemic in 2020. It will make several stops in Louisiana. It will be in Mansfield on November 29. Other stops in the state include Shreveport, Monroe, DeQuincy, and Leesville.
This year, the festive, six-car holiday train with intricate displays inside and out will bring Santa Claus and his elves to visit children and families in 20 communities in eight states. In addition, the KCS Holiday Express project will continue its tradition of charitable giving to The Salvation Army.
“KCS is thrilled that we can once again run the Holiday Express train and stop in communities along our rail network,” said president and CEO Patrick J. Ottensmeyer. “We are grateful to the many donors who continued to support the virtual Holiday Express program over the last two years and look forward to another successful fundraising campaign to help The Salvation Army help people who need it most during the holiday season.”
The KCS Holiday Express was built on the tradition of the Santa Train, which ran on a segment of the network bought by KCS in 1997. In 2000, a group of warm-hearted KCS employees noticed that the Santa Train was the only Christmas some kids had, and that some kids did not have essential items like coats, hats and gloves, so they committed to elevating the project. In 2001, volunteers transformed a retired freight train to the KCS Holiday Express experience that thousands enjoyed for 19 years prior to the start of the pandemic.
