The Class I railroads have responded to the Surface Transportation Board’s strategic question: “Are You Prepared?” Shippers should look for certain signals.
Kansas City Southern has asked the Surface Transportation Board to reject Canadian Pacific’s petition for expedited declaratory relief, which KCS claims would assist CP in preparing a “hostile” control application.
CN and Kansas City Southern (KCS) have reported receiving an additional 100 letters in support of their proposed merger, bringing the total to more than 1,500.
Is this New Orleans-to-Mobile Amtrak commuter-like train proposal “a rather complex story,” like the meaning behind the lyrics of the 1974 Lynyrd Skynyrd hit, Sweet Home Alabama?
Sometimes in decision making, there isn’t much of a middle ground. Sometimes there is simply right and wrong. Such is the nature of the decision facing the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in the coming months as it addresses proposed railroad mergers. Their decision will have a very big impact on what the railroad industry will look like in the coming decades.
Per the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) request, proposed merger partners CN and Kansas City Southern (KCS) have filed financial documents that will help STB decide whether or not to approve their voting trust agreement. Canadian Pacific, not surprisingly, responded with heavy artillery fire, with support from rail labor.
In a somewhat-unexpected action, Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairman Martin Oberman recently suggested some ideas and offered borderline critique about pending public railroad issues. During my long railroad career, such displays of opinion were restricted normally to written official procedural decisions text. A lot of this is geographically following congestion and related intermodal rail service issues around Memphis. Here is my strategic view.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has directed proposed merger partners CN and Kansas City Southern (KCS) to submit by June 14 certain financial documents, which will inform public comments on their voting trust agreement.
Having been one of the three Surface Transportation Board (STB) Members who voted on the 2001 Major Merger Rules, it seems clear to me that the CN voting trust satisfies the new rules requirements addressing “unlawful control” and the “public interest” when deciding to approve or reject a voting trust. As such, it should be approved so that the Board and the public may move forward to consider the merits of the proposed transaction.
CN President and CEO JJ Ruest and Kansas City Southern President and CEO Pat Ottensmeyer discuss the two railroads’ pending merger in detail with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. How confident
