MONTREAL — The Canadian government will seek “world-class knowledge and private sector expertise” for VIA Rail Canada’s proposal to build passenger-only trackage for parts of its Quebec City-Toronto corridor rather than directly financing the project, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced Wednesday. Proposal dates to 2015 First unveiled by then-VIA CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano in 2015, the […]
Bash Canadian Pacific Kansas City Day – otherwise known as Feb. 28, the deadline for comments on the CP-Kansas City Southern merger – has come and gone. What have we learned from the flurry of regulatory filings from other railroads, shippers, and lineside communities? The Class I railroads behaved like you’d expect: Following a tradition […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has set a schedule for submission of evidence and arguments in a long-running disagreement between Amtrak and Canadian National over Amtrak operations on CN routes. The case dates to a July 20, 2013, filing by Amtrak asking the board to establish terms and compensation for use of CN’s rail […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern have vastly overestimated traffic and revenue growth that would flow from their proposed combination, making the rest of their merger application a house of cards, Canadian National claims in a regulatory filing. The CP-KCS merger application is so “riddled with errors” that the Surface Transportation Board should not […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian National says its proposed acquisition of Kansas City Southern’s Springfield Line would enable it to divert 80,000 long-haul truck shipments to rail annually by creating a new route linking Kansas City and St. Louis with Michigan and Eastern Canada. The traffic projection — 33% more truck diversions than Canadian Pacific and KCS […]
Winter hit Southern Ontario hard over the Feb. 19-20 weekend. A widespread blizzard whipped up snow for hundreds of miles, accumulating on rights of way and proving especially difficult on Canadian National and Southern Ontario Railway branch lines in Southwestern Ontario. CN’s north mainline is an internal short line, operated by crews formerly of the […]
MONTREAL — At approximately 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12, a loud impact called to the attention of those in the vicinity, including at least one rail enthusiast, that something had gone quite wrong with the delivery of a new bilevel commuter car for Montreal-area commuter operator EXO. The new car, built by China’s CRRC […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian National is making a bold claim: It will take more trucks off the highway than what’s projected for the entire Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger if regulators force divestiture of the KCS line linking Springfield, Ill., and Kansas City. CN told the Surface Transportation Board last month that it intended to file […]
WASHINGTON — The Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Chicago interchange dispute is back before the Surface Transportation Board. At issue: Whether CP should pick up the tab for Belt Railway of Chicago switching fees for CN-bound traffic interchanged at BRC’s Clearing Yard. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in December vacated an October 2020 STB decision […]
OTTAWA, Ontario — Thousands of truck drivers have descended on Canada’s Parliament in recent days, clogging the streets of the Canadian capital and blocking U.S.-Canadian border crossings in response to a Jan. 15 government vaccine mandate requiring truckers returning from the U.S. to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine. Dubbed the “Freedom Convoy,” and originating […]
GATINEAU, Quebec — Failure of a key component caused a coupler to fall from a rail car, triggering a 22-car derailment in New Brunswick in January 2021, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in a report issued Tuesday. The board also cautioned that if design of such components is not reassessed based on changes […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific wants federal regulators to toss out Canadian National’s request to gain control of Kansas City Southern’s line linking Springfield, Ill., and Kansas City, Mo., as a condition of the CP-KCS merger. CN’s proposal for divestiture of the line is “without merit,” CP argued in a Jan. 28 filing with the Surface […]
