CHICAGO – Canadian National has asked a federal court to set aside a U.S. Surface Transportation Board decision that has stymied CN’s acquisition of CSX Transportation’s Massena Line linking Montreal with Syracuse, N.Y.
CN subsidiary Bessemer & Lake Erie filed the suit last week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
The STB last year approved CSX’s sale of 263.3 miles of trackage in New York to CN’s B&LE. But it asked the railroads to remove a condition in the purchase and sale agreement that would forever bar CN from seeking to interchange with short lines Finger Lakes Railway and New York, Susquehanna & Western in the Syracuse area.
CN and CSX were unable to come to terms and asked the board to reconsider its decision. The board refused, leaving the line sale in limbo since its Feb. 24 decision.
CN argues that the board is required to approve a line sale unless the competitive harm of the transaction outweighs its benefits.
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