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Rail News Home Canadian Pacific 1/14/2022 Rail News: Canadian Pacific
CN's proposal regarding Kansas City Southern’s Springfield Line is built on a "series of factual errors or misstatements," Canadian Pacific officials said yesterday. CN announced earlier this week that it would ask the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to condition approval of a CP-KCS merger on the divestiture of the Springfield Line — KCS’ lines from Kansas City, Missouri, to Springfield and East St. Louis, Illinois — to CN. But in a prepared statement, CP officials said the Springfield Line is not “parallel” to CP’s line between Kansas City and Chicago. "KCS’s line is line is not part of a through route to Chicago in conjunction with CN. In fact, there is no direct connection between KCS and CN today at Springfield, and historic interchange volumes reflect the absence of any actual service here," CP officials stated. As part of the CP-KCS merger, the lines will grow along with the new company, they said. "The route from Kansas City to St. Louis and the other assets CN wants the STB to force CP to divest are important parts of the combined CPKC growth story providing new, competitive single-line routes connecting CP's network with customers and port facilities in St. Louis, and connections to eastern carriers. CP anticipates an increase of traffic on this corridor of 30%," they added.

Rail News Home Canadian National Railway - CN 1/13/2022 Rail News: Canadian National Railway - CN
CN announced today it intends to ask the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to condition any approval of a Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger on the divestiture of KCS lines from Kansas City, Missouri, to Springfield and East St. Louis, Illinois, to CN. CN yesterday informed the STB of its intent to file a responsive application on Feb. 28 in accordance with the board’s schedule for reviewing the CP-KCS merger application. The Springfield Line is a direct competitive alternative to CP’s route from Kansas City to Chicago, and beyond to Detroit and eastern Canada. CP and KCS have made it clear in their merger application that they plan no investment on the Springfield Line, and instead will de-emphasize it in favor of CP’s existing parallel line, CN officials said in a press release. Putting the line under CN’s control "represents a major opportunity to improve transportation options, promote rail-to-rail competition, and take many of thousands of long-haul trucks off the road annually through increased rail-to-truck competition," the press release stated. Specifically, CN would invest at least $250 million in the line, including terminal upgrades; opening new international markets to customers; and preserving existing options by providing KCS access to customers on the line, CN officials said.