December 7, 2015: A day that will live in infamy for anyone attempting to follow the volley of legalese and rhetoric being tossed about by Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern as CP attempts to marry up with NS in what may be beginning to look more and more like a shotgun wedding officiated by The Rev. Bill Ackman.*
In response to the proposed merger between Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) and Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS), U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Dec. 14, 2015 sent a letter signed by Democratic members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) urging the agency to carefully consider the potential negative impact of the proposal on Illinois’ freight network. In the letter, the legislators requested careful review of the possible effects of CP’s proposed acquisition of NS on Illinois communities and businesses, particularly those in and around Chicago.
The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association, Inc. (NRC), elected two new members to its Board of Directors and released the winners of the 2015 NRC/RT&S Contractor and Safety Awards.
In a Dec. 10, 2015 interview with Bloomberg TV Canada, BNSF Executive Chairman Matt Rose stated that his company has spoken to both eastern Class I railroads about potential merger activity. “We have long believed BNSF would be involved in the industry potentially consolidating from seven carriers to four,” says Cowen & Company Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl. “We continue to believe Norfolk Southern shares will outperform and that investors will start to look at eastern rival CSX.”
Canadian Pacific’s pursuit of Norfolk Southern has taken on the tone of a rough-and-tumble yet well-intentioned star athlete pulling out all the stops to capture the heart of his dream woman, a relationship-shy political science major who continues to resist her suitor’s advances with perfectly logical yet unemotional reasons why the two aren’t right for each other.
Norfolk Southern’s Wick Moorman responds to Railway Age’s October 2015 issue cover story on Positive Train Control.
Canadian Pacific Railway on Dec. 3, 2015 ratified a multi-year collective agreement with the 300 locomotive engineers, assistant engineers, conductors and brakemen on CP U.S. subsidiary Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railway (DM&E) represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET).
Levitation takes two forms among railroads—magnetic levitation relating to futuristic high-speed passenger transport, and stock levitation associated with bidding wars for asset control.
For the week ending Nov. 21, 2015, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 532,532 carloads and intermodal units, down 5.7% compared with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads reported on Nov. 25. U.S. carloads fell nearly 10%; Canadian carloads dropped nearly 13%. Intermodal for some sectors saw modest gains.
The day after confirming that it had made an offer to Norfolk Southern—and following NS’s tepid response—Canadian Pacific on Nov. 18, 2015 disclosed the contents of the offer letter it sent to NS chief executive Jim Squires “to clarify the details of a proposal that would result in the creation of a pro-competitive, pro-customer, coast-to-coast transportation solution.”