CPKC Debuts Today

The ranks of North American Class 1 Railroads will shrink by one today with the consummation of the merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.

The debut of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway comes a month after the merger was approved by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

Earlier the merger had been approved by regulatory authorities in Mexico and Canada.

CPKC will have 19,200 miles of track but will still be the smallest of North America’s six Class 1 Railroads.

A ceremony to commemorate the merger is to be held today in Kansas City, Missouri.

It is not yet clear if the new CPKC Railway will soon announce a new locomotive livery. The company, though, has taken steps to begin rebranding itself on its social media accounts.

Amtrak Says CP Will Allow Passenger Expansion

Amtrak said in a brief filed with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board that Canadian Pacific has agreed to back the passenger carrier’s efforts to expand service in several locations, including Michigan.

The brief was the final filing by Amtrak in the proposed merger of CP and Kansas City Southern.

CP has agree to allow Amtrak to institute new service between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, that would connect at the latter with trains of VIA Rail Canada. The service would use a tunnel under the Detroit River that is owned by CP.

No details about that proposed service have been released nor is there a timeline for its implementation.

Amtrak’s current Wolverine Service between Chicago and Detroit continues northward to suburban Pontiac. One or more of those trains would have to be diverted to Windsor.

The existing Detroit Amtrak station is not located on the route into Windsor.

Amtrak’ s brief described CP as a “reliable partner in working with Amtrak to provide safe, efficient and effective passenger-rail services.”

The brief said CP also agreed to allow Amtrak to add other additional or new services including:

• Expansion on the CP-owned portion of the Hiawatha Service route between Chicago and Milwaukee;

• Between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, on lines owned by CP; 

• Between New Orleans (IC Junction) and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on a KCS line.

CP also has agreed to participate in a study with Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and various governmental agencies of implementing new service between Dallas and Meridian, Mississippi.

Comment Period Extended on CP-KCS Merger

The deadline to comment on the draft environmental analysis of the proposed merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern has been extended to Oct. 14.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board said on Tuesday it extended the deadline at the request of officials from “affected communities.”

The notice extending the comment period noted “no further extensions of time will be granted” after the October due date.”

A final environmental analysis will be issued after the comment period closes.

Comments on the draft analysis may be submitted electronically on the Board-sponsored project website or the Board’s website by clicking on the “E-FILING” link.

Committee Gives CP-KCS Merger an OK

An interagency federal government committee has given its approval of the proposed merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is authorized to review certain transactions involving foreign investment and certain real estate transactions by foreign entities to determine their effect on national security.

The merger is still being reviewed by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. That review is expected to be completed by early 2023.

CP-KCS Want Merger Without Conditions

Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern have asked the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to approve their merger without conditions.

The two recently filed a 4,300-document with the STB in which they sought to rebut requests for conditions being made by other railroads and interested parties.

CP-KCS content that their merger is compellingly in the public interest and should be approved without conditions “beyond those embodying the commitments Applicants are making.”

Those commitments, including some made to Amtrak, are detailed in the document.

CP-KCS noted that no shipper  or shipper association has suggested that the merger be denied.

CN Expects to Reach Deal with KCS Soon

Canadian National is confident it will be able to reach an agreement to purchase Kansas City Southern in the next 30 to 40 days.

The KCS board of directors agreed over the weekend that it would consider CN’s $33.7 billion offer.

Earlier KCS had agreed to a $29 billion merger offer from Canadian Pacific.

CN management will review this week confidential KCS data and talk about a final merger agreement with their KCS counterparts.

CP has sought to discourage the CN bid by saying it would be anti-competitive and unable to receive regulatory approval due to broad overlap between the CN and KCS systems in the middle of the country, particularly along the former Illinois Central system that CN owns.

However, CN CEO JJ Ruest has countered that his company’s bid would offer KCS shareholders 21 percent more than the CP deal.

Although CN has acknowledged that its acquisition of KCS would reduce competition between Baton Route and New Orleans, CN Chief Operating Officer Rob Reily said his company will remedy that, indicating one step might be selling some lines in the region to another railroad.

Since CN announced its bid for KCS some 500 letters of support for the CN bid have poured into the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.