Canadian Pacific (CP) on Dec. 14 completed its acquisition of Kansas City Southern (KCS); KCS shares have been placed into a voting trust until the Surface Transportation Board (STB) issues a decision on railroads’ proposed combination, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, which is expected in fourth-quarter 2022.
For its 50th anniversary fiscal year (Oct. 2020-Sept. 2021), Amtrak provided 12.2 million passenger trips, representing a growth of 4 million over the 2020 rate and a 42% rise over its FY21 goal, the railroad reported on Dec. 13.
“Recovering our service is our highest priority, and we assure you we are taking action to achieve this as quickly as possible,” Norfolk Southern President Alan H. Shaw wrote in a Dec. 10 letter to Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman, who asked the Class I railroad to address the deterioration of “key operating metrics” and the increasing number of customer complaints to STB about its “poor performance.”
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Dec. 10 reported that it will hold a virtual public hearing on the revised CSX-Pan Am merger application, and affirmed that an environmental and historic review of the proposed combination is not required.
Canadian Pacific (CP) shareholders “overwhelmingly support” the proposed CP-Kansas City Southern (KCS) merger agreement, CP reported on Dec. 8, following a virtual shareholder meeting; the merger would create Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), the first U.S.-Mexico-Canada rail network.
The Senate on Dec. 7 confirmed Democrat Deirdre Hamilton as a member of the National Mediation Board, succeeding Republican Kyle Fortson, whose first term expired, and shifting the three-member agency to a Democratic majority.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Nov. 29 decided that Amtrak may access CSX’s Choctaw Yard in Mobile, Ala., as part of its Gulf Coast service planning efforts.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has adopted a final rule establishing a new “emergency temporary trackage rights class exemption” that could be invoked during natural disasters, accidents or derailments; the rule is effective Dec. 30, 2021.
Years ago, as general counsel to the Illinois Racing Commission, Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairperson Martin J. Oberman chased the “gow”—jockey-speak for opium used illegally to improve race horse performance. These days, the 76-year-old Oberman is himself infused with a legal form of gow: an unabated resolve to use his regulatory cudgel to splinter railroad market power.
Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) have received the required Mexican regulatory pre-transaction control approvals for their proposed combination, Canadian Pacific Kansas City.