WASHINGTON — Railroads and shipper groups squared off over a proposed reciprocal switching rule during a daylong Surface Transportation Board hearing on Tuesday, with railroads warning of dire operational consequences and sole-served shippers saying they needed relief from high rates and poor service. Federal regulators seemed sympathetic to shippers’ concerns but grappled with how they […]
Railroad: Canadian National
Michigan court reinstates case of youth struck by train
WYANDOTTE, Mich. — The Michigan Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit against the Grand Trunk Western Railroad involving a teen who was struck by a train in 2012. The Associated Press reports Jacob Marion, who was 14 at the time, was stuck by a train and severely injured while walking down the tracks while […]
Transport Canada inches forward with VIA’s ‘High Frequency’ plan: Analysis
MONTREAL — The Canadian government will seek “world-class knowledge and private sector expertise” for VIA Rail Canada’s proposal to build passenger-only trackage for parts of its Quebec City-Toronto corridor rather than directly financing the project, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced Wednesday. Proposal dates to 2015 First unveiled by then-VIA CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano in 2015, the […]
Analysis: No deal-breakers emerge from barrage of comments about CP-KCS merger
Bash Canadian Pacific Kansas City Day – otherwise known as Feb. 28, the deadline for comments on the CP-Kansas City Southern merger – has come and gone. What have we learned from the flurry of regulatory filings from other railroads, shippers, and lineside communities? The Class I railroads behaved like you’d expect: Following a tradition […]
STB sets schedule for submissions in Amtrak-CN dispute
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has set a schedule for submission of evidence and arguments in a long-running disagreement between Amtrak and Canadian National over Amtrak operations on CN routes. The case dates to a July 20, 2013, filing by Amtrak asking the board to establish terms and compensation for use of CN’s rail […]
Canadian National questions foundation of CP-KCS merger application
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern have vastly overestimated traffic and revenue growth that would flow from their proposed combination, making the rest of their merger application a house of cards, Canadian National claims in a regulatory filing. The CP-KCS merger application is so “riddled with errors” that the Surface Transportation Board should not […]
Canadian National details KCS Springfield Line improvement plans, traffic projections
WASHINGTON — Canadian National says its proposed acquisition of Kansas City Southern’s Springfield Line would enable it to divert 80,000 long-haul truck shipments to rail annually by creating a new route linking Kansas City and St. Louis with Michigan and Eastern Canada. The traffic projection — 33% more truck diversions than Canadian Pacific and KCS […]
News photos: Blizzard aftermath and plow action in Ontario
Winter hit Southern Ontario hard over the Feb. 19-20 weekend. A widespread blizzard whipped up snow for hundreds of miles, accumulating on rights of way and proving especially difficult on Canadian National and Southern Ontario Railway branch lines in Southwestern Ontario. CN’s north mainline is an internal short line, operated by crews formerly of the […]
New Montreal commuter car damaged in delivery accident (second update)
MONTREAL — At approximately 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12, a loud impact called to the attention of those in the vicinity, including at least one rail enthusiast, that something had gone quite wrong with the delivery of a new bilevel commuter car for Montreal-area commuter operator EXO. The new car, built by China’s CRRC […]
CN touts proposal to acquire KCS route linking Springfield, Ill., with Kansas City
WASHINGTON — Canadian National is making a bold claim: It will take more trucks off the highway than what’s projected for the entire Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger if regulators force divestiture of the KCS line linking Springfield, Ill., and Kansas City. CN told the Surface Transportation Board last month that it intended to file […]
CN asks regulators to resolve CP interchange dispute in Chicago
WASHINGTON — The Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Chicago interchange dispute is back before the Surface Transportation Board. At issue: Whether CP should pick up the tab for Belt Railway of Chicago switching fees for CN-bound traffic interchanged at BRC’s Clearing Yard. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in December vacated an October 2020 STB decision […]
Is Canadian truckers’ protest a short-term opportunity for cross-border rail? — Analysis
OTTAWA, Ontario — Thousands of truck drivers have descended on Canada’s Parliament in recent days, clogging the streets of the Canadian capital and blocking U.S.-Canadian border crossings in response to a Jan. 15 government vaccine mandate requiring truckers returning from the U.S. to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine. Dubbed the “Freedom Convoy,” and originating […]