WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Friday denied requests from Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific to open an investigation into Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s handling of UP-NS interline intermodal trains on the Meridian Speedway.
The Surface Transportation Board said there was no need to intervene because any service problems have been resolved. The board also said that gateway conditions imposed as part of the 2023 Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger did not apply to intermodal traffic moving over the Meridian Speedway.
“NSR and UP have not demonstrated a need for Board intervention at this time,” the STB said in a six-page unanimous decision.
On Sept. 30, the eve of the federal government shutdown, NS and UP wrote separate letters to the STB, with NS alleging that deterioration in service on the Meridian Speedway had prompted intermodal customers to divert freight to the highway [see “Norfolk Southern claims …,” Trains.com, Oct. 3, 2025].
NS asked regulators to enforce CPKC’s promise, made while the CP-KCS merger was under regulatory review, that it would maintain service levels on the Speedway, the 320-mile corridor that stretches from Shreveport, La., to Meridian, Miss., and is a shortcut for traffic moving between the West Coast and the Southeast.
UP separately asked the STB to investigate whether CPKC was complying with its merger-related commitments [see “Union Pacific asks STB to probe …,” Feb. 10, 2026].
CPKC told the STB, in a Nov. 13 filing, that the NS and UP complaints were inaccurate and were not subject to board oversight [see “CPKC disputes NS and UP complaints …,” Nov. 26, 2025].
The Meridian Speedway is a joint venture between CPKC and NS. CPKC operates the corridor, and NS and UP said service suffered after CPKC’s May 3, 2025 cutover to the legacy CP computer system in former KCS territory in the U.S.
CPKC acknowledged service problems immediately following the cutover, but said those were resolved quickly and that by late summer transit times across the Speedway were better than they were before the CP-KCS merger.
UP and NS had sparred with CPKC over Meridian Speedway operations since CPKC reimposed an 8,500-foot train length restriction in August 2025. The move affected just one train: The interline intermodal hotshot that UP and NS run from Los Angeles to Atlanta.
The eastbound version of the train, ZLAAI on UP and 28J on NS, typically runs 11,000 feet, which is longer than all but three of the Speedway’s sidings. CPKC CEO Keith Creel said that his railroad’s customers should not experience delays simply because UP and NS do not want to run their train to siding length.
CPKC temporarily lifted the train-length restriction in the fall while it hired additional crews to handle a scheduled second section of the train beginning in mid-November. Once the second section was launched and the 8,500-foot restriction was reimposed, UP complained to the board that dwell had increased at Hollywood Yard in Shreveport, where UP splits its 11,000-foot train into two sections before handing the trains to CPKC.
“It is not clear from the record that the increased dwell time at Hollywood Yard, which is not part of the Meridian Speedway, is indicative of deteriorated service on the Speedway,” the STB said in its decision. “UP acknowledges that part of this increased dwell is because UP is cutting 11,000-foot intermodal trains to comply with the 8,500-foot restriction on the Meridian Speedway. In addition, as CPKC notes, the increased dwell of UP’s ‘second train’ could also be attributable to an agreement between CPKC and NSR that the second train would be scheduled to depart four hours and forty minutes after the first.”
Union Pacific said in a statement on Monday, March 16, that it is “disappointed with the Meridian Speedway decision. Canadian Pacific changed the way they operated and moved customer freight after they purchased Kansas City Southern. We’re disappointed but will live with the decision.”
— Updated March 17 at 7:22 a.m. CT with comment from Union Pacific. To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
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