WASHINGTON – Federal regulators on Tuesday agreed to toss out some comments that BNSF Railway and Canadian National had filed in response to the proposed Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger.
CP had asked the Surface Transportation Board to strike evidence that BNSF, CN, and CSX Transportation submitted separately on July 12, the deadline for final responses to merger comments, protests, and requests for conditions.
CP argued that the points the railroads raised were out of bounds because they were new issues rather than responses.
In a mixed decision, the STB agreed to strike some of the comments but allowed others to be considered as part of the merger review process.
Among the items tossed out: BNSF Railway’s capacity study that contends the CP-KCS merger would bring gridlock to the Houston terminal [see “BNSF claims CP-KCS merger will throw Houston terminal into gridlock,” Trains News Wire, July 14, 2022], and CN’s claims that Canadian Pacific Kansas City would create a bottleneck in Chicago, particularly where CP operates over CN and Metra trackage [see “CP-KCS merger will snarl key Chicago rail junction …,” News Wire, July 13, 2022].
These concerns, the board said, could have and should have been raised earlier as part of each railroad’s initial comments on the CP-KCS merger.
The board said it would allow BNSF’s concerns over rates to be part of the record, however.
Regulators also let stand CSX’s entire July 12 filing, which raises objections to the Meridian Speedway agreement that KCS and Norfolk Southern reached in 2006.
CSX claims that the Meridian Speedway deal — which gives NS exclusive rights to interchange intermodal traffic with KCS at Meridian, Miss. — is unlawful, limits competition, and should face STB review as part of the CP-KCS merger.
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