Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) insisted that the merger between Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) is unnecessary and would allow that company to handle almost 50% of freight rail traffic in the United States .
Keith Creel, president and chief executive of CPKC, said the railroads’ new application does not change the underlying reality and falls far short of meeting the standards set out in the Land Transportation Board’s (STB) updated 2001 rules on large mergers .
“A combined UP-NS could place nearly 50% of U.S. freight rail traffic in the hands of a single company that already has a troubled history—some very recent—of abusing market power to the detriment of American businesses and workers. None of this serves the public interest. None of this serves the interests of shippers. All of this puts our supply chains and our economy at unnecessary risk,” Creel said.
The executive recalled that on May 8, CPKC submitted comments on the integrity of the revised application, noting that UP and NS did not meet the STB’s specific requirements to submit a detailed analysis of the market impact based on their future projections of participation in rail traffic flows for major freight and corridors.
“This has led us to ask, did UP overlook this specific instruction from the STB? If not, does UP have something to hide? One thing is certain: this is emblematic of UP continuing to have its own interpretation of STB rules and orders, and how they apply to UP,” he commented.
In this regard, he opined that if the STB accepts the resubmitted request, it will carry out a rigorous regulatory evaluation and review.
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