One injured as CN trains collide in Ontario (updated)

Smashed locomotives and other wreckage

PRESCOTT, Ontario — One person is reported injured in a collision between two Canadian National trains Thursday morning, the Ontario Provincial Police report. The collision occurred about 10:30 a.m. near an overpass at Edward Street in Prescott, about 65 miles northeast of Kingston, Ont., and just across the St. Lawrence River from Ogdensburg, N.Y. CTV […]

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Analysis: Merger hopes dashed, CN now faces fierce backlash

JJ Ruest standing in front of trains

There is no joy in Mudville – er, Montreal – today because the mighty CN has struck out. Canadian National suffered a stinging defeat on Tuesday when U.S. federal regulators effectively killed its proposed merger with Kansas City Southern. CN won’t get to create the first railway connecting Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. And it […]

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Analysis: With CN-KCS decision, regulators shut the door to future mergers

Red, yellow, and black diesel locomotives bring a freight train around a curve and between signals

The Surface Transportation Board took 33 pages to explain why it rejected Canadian National’s request to put Kansas City Southern into a voting trust while their proposed merger would be placed under the regulatory microscope. Buried on Page 31 of the board’s decision is a 105-word passage that – aside from a potential Canadian Pacific-KCS […]

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Kansas City Southern to adjourn planned meeting on CN offer

Kansas City Southern logo

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Southern says it will adjourn its scheduled stockholders meeting, which had been set for Friday to consider Canadian National’s merger agreement, as a result of Tuesday’s Surface Transportation Board decision to deny a voting trust while the CN-KCS plan was undergoing regulatory scrutiny. That meeting is set for 9 […]

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Major CN investor calls for ouster of CEO and chairman after KCS decision (updated)

Man in coat and tie

MONTREAL – Canadian National’s second-largest investor today urged the railway to drop its bid for Kansas City Southern and called for the resignation of board Chairman Robert Pace and CEO JJ Ruest. TCI Fund Management recommends that Jim Vena – a former CN chief operating officer who most recently headed operations at Union Pacific – be […]

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Federal regulators reject CN plan to put KCS in voting trust (third update)

Canadian National and Kansas City Southern logos

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators Tuesday rejected Canadian National’s request to put Kansas City Southern into a voting trust, dealing a serious blow to the first merger between Class I railroads in two decades. The Surface Transportation Board’s decision that placing KCS into a voting trust was not in the public interest may prompt the railroads […]

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Activist investor to seek changes at Canadian National (updated)

Logo for TCI Fund Management

MONTREAL — A London-based activist investment firm has amassed 5.2% of Canadian National’s shares and says it will seek to influence how the railway is run. TCI Fund Management — which in May asked CN to call off its proposed merger with Kansas City Southern — is now CN’s second-largest single shareholder, behind only Cascade […]

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NARS meeting adds online option

North American Rail Shippers logo

CHICAGO — The North American Rail Shippers Association has added an online participation option to its annual meeting, to be held in Chicago Sept. 7-9. “To make attending as convenient as possible we have added online options because we know there is still uncertainty about traveling due to COVID-19,” NARS President Tom Tisa said in a […]

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Transportation Safety Board to investigate CN derailment in New Brunswick

Transportation Safety Board of Canada logo

MONCTON, New Brunswick — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced Monday it was sending investigators to the site of a Saturday derailment of a Canadian National train northwest of Moncton. The CBC reported 30 cars derailed, 20 of which ended up on their side. A CN spokesman said no hazardous materials were involved but […]

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Ask MR: Why do these CN boxcars have built-in flashers on the ends?

Four red CN high-cube distributed braking cars in the middle of an intermodal train.

Q: I recently saw these bright orange boxcars parked near the Canadian National Woodcrest Shops. They have CN reporting marks, though I haven’t gotten close enough to get specific numbers. Many of them have red lights on both ends that look to be like the ones used at crossing gates. They must move these cars […]

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KCS shareholders to vote on CN merger on Sept. 3 (updated)

Canadian National and Kansas City Southern logos

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Southern shareholders will vote on the proposed merger with Canadian National on Sept. 3. KCS this morning convened and adjourned its previously scheduled special meeting of shareholders, delaying the vote in the absence of a Surface Transportation Board decision on CN’s request to put KCS into a voting trust […]

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Woman who lost home in Lytton fire files suit against CN, CP

Coat of Arms logo for British Columbia Supreme Court

LYTTON, British Columbia — A woman who lost her home in the fire that destroyed most of Lytton, B.C., in June has filed suit against Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, saying the railroads “caused or contributed” to the fire by operating when the heat made it unsafe to operate trains. Global News reports Carel Moiseiswitsch […]

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