House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) is leaning toward opposing a proposed merger between Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern Corp., a Pennsylvania newspaper reported this morning.
After touring Norfolk Southern Railway's Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona yesterday, Shuster said he was keeping an open mind but was currently leaning toward "no," the Altoona Mirror reported.
CSX Chief Financial Officer Frank Lonegro said yesterday the company expects this year's economy to be "challenging," as the Class I faces intensifying coal headwinds and other economic factors that will contribute to declining volumes.
In a press release, Lonegro said CSX expects first-quarter earnings to drop "significantly."
CSX will streamline operations at 16 of its car repair facilities as part of an ongoing effort to align resources with demand, the Class I announced last week.
Operations will be reduced at car shops in Montgomery, Ala.; Washington, D.C.; Baldwin, Fla.; Indianapolis and Evansville, Ind; New Orleans; Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich.; Wilmington, N.C.; Kenmore, N.Y.; Ashtabula, Ohio; Erie and Pittsburgh, Pa.; Florence, S.C.; Richmond, Va.; and Huntington, W.Va., according to a CSX press release.
Canadian Pacific announced today it will ask the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to issue a declaratory order confirming the viability of a voting trust structure that the railroad has called for as part of its proposed takeover of Norfolk Southern Corp.
CP called on NS to assist "constructively in this effort," but will proceed regardless of its cooperation.
Canadian Pacific yesterday launched a new website that highlights what the Class I says would be the benefits of its proposed merger with Norfolk Southern Corp.
The website provides details of CP's proposal, along with details of its next steps in the effort to acquire NS, according to a CP press release.
CN yesterday announced details of its 2016 capital spending plan that's projected to total about $2.9 billion (in Canadian dollars).
The railroad plans to spend about $1.5 billion on track infrastructure, including the replacement of rail, ties and other track materials, improvements to bridges and upgrades to targeted branch lines.
The Class I also expects to spend $600 million on rolling stock, including the delivery of 90 new high-horsepower locomotives in 2016.
Meanwhile, CN plans to invest $400 million in "a range of other key initiatives," including $400 million on the implementation of positive train control technology on portions of its U.S. rail network.
Canadian Pacific appears to have dropped the proxy-fight strategy for its proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern Corp. Yesterday, CP notified NS of its intent to submit a resolution to NS shareholders to ask the NS board to "engage in good faith discussions" with CP regarding the Class I's proposed takeover of NS, according to a Feb. 9 press release.
The shareholder resolution — which would be voted on at the NS annual meeting later this year — merely asks NS shareholders to formally vote "in favor of what they have been saying to CP anecdotally for months," CP said.
Cross–border traffic into and out of Mexico currently generates about 10 percent of UP's annual volume.
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Union Pacific Railroad reduced highway-rail crossing accidents by 3 percent in 2015, the Class I announced on Friday.
UP reduced the total number of Federal Railroad Administration reportable grade crossing accidents to 2.28 per million train miles.
Norfolk Southern Corp. assisted 93 facilities in locating or expanding business along its rail lines in 2015, resulting in an investment of $4.2 billion by NS customers, the Class I announced yesterday.
The customers' investments are expected to generate more than 85,000 carloads of new rail traffic annually, NS officials said in a press release.
The Arizona Corporation Commission has approved a $120 million project that includes a major upgrade to a Union Pacific Railroad crossing in Tucson, the commission announced this week.
Designed to improve safety and traffic flow, the project will remove a grade crossing at Interstate 10 and Ina Road in Tucson. I-10 will be lowered to ground level and widened to eight lanes, with Ina Road raised to cross over Camino de Oeste, the tracks, and I-10, commission officials said in a press release.
Canadian Pacific today released its third white paper on issues related to its proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern Corp.
The latest paper, titled "CP-NS: A Comprehensive Approach to Regulatory Approval," details the comprehensive, merit-based process a railroad merger application would be subject to at the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, CP officials said in a press release.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) in Washington, D.C., will host a meeting Feb. 10 to gather public input on the replacement or rehabilitation of the Long Bridge.
The meeting is part of the Long Bridge Phase II study, which is underway. The existing two-track bridge is owned by CSX and serves freight, Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) trains.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) has begun to receive letters from rail customers who are in favor of Canadian Pacific's proposed takeover of Norfolk Southern Corp.
Dakota Plains Holdings Inc. and multiple other shippers wrote last month to the STB to say they support CP's proposal to acquire NS. Until last week, most of the letters written to the STB were sent in opposition to the CP-NS merger.
Canadian Pacific announced Matthew Paull has been appointed to the board effective immediately, replacing Paul Hilal, who has resigned.
Hilal's departure coincides with his resignation from Pershing Square Capital Management L.P. A CP board member since 2012, Hilal chaired the board's Management Resources and Compensation Committee and was a member of the Finance Committee.
Despite an 8 percent decline in carloadings for the fourth-quarter, CN reported its fourth-quarter 2015 net income rose 11 percent to $941 million and diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose 15 percent to $1.18 (in Canadian dollars), the Class I announced yesterday.
The quarterly profit beat analysts' expectations. The railroad's operating income rose 7 percent to $1.354 billion, and the operating ratio decreased 3.5 points to 57.2 percent compared with the year-ago quarter, according to a CN press release, which reported all figures in Canadian dollars.
NS posted net income of $361 million, or $1.20 per diluted share, for Q4 2015, down nearly 30 percent when compared with $511 million, or $1.64 per diluted share in fourth-quarter 2014. Analysts expected NS to earn $1.23 per share for Q4 2015.
Railway operating revenue for the quarter totaled $2.5 billion, down 12 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. Income from railway operations fell 28 percent to $642 million compared with Q4 2015.
CN has submitted an application to the Canadian Transportation Agency for approval of the Class I's proposed logistics hub in Milton, Ontario.
The application outlines the infrastructure required for the $250 million project (in Canadian dollars) and what CN anticipates will be the economic benefits of the logistics hub, CN officials said in a press release.
Canadian Pacific expects to reduce its workforce by about 1,000 employees in 2016, company officials said during an earnings conference call with analysts yesterday.
The job reductions are necessary to adjust to lower traffic volumes. Positions will be eliminated across the board, but most of the unionized positions will be eliminated by attrition, said Chief Executive Officer E. Hunter Harrison. Most of the cuts will have kicked in by the middle of 2016, he said.
A decrease in traffic volume, a hurricane in Mexico and flooding in the United States resulted in Kansas City Southern posting lower revenue, profit and earnings for the fourth-quarter and full year in 2015, the company announced this morning.
KCS posted fourth-quarter 2015 net income of $140 million on revenue of $598 million, compared with net income of $142 million on revenue of $642.5 million for the same period in 2014, according to a KCS press release.