(Source: Canadian Pacific Railway press release, June 28, 2021)
CALGARY — Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (“CP”) announced today that Amtrak, operator of intercity passenger rail service across the United States, has submitted comments urging the Surface Transportation Board (“STB”) to reject Canadian National’s (“CN”) use of a voting trust in its proposed combination with Kansas City Southern (“KCS”).
In its filing made today, Amtrak said CN’s proposed divestiture of the Baton Rouge to New Orleans line “creates a major new impediment to giving the 2.2 million residents along the New Orleans-to-Baton Rouge corridor the Amtrak service they deserve and have long needed.”
Amtrak also said, “CN’s ‘divestiture’ proposal is the equivalent of a homeowner selling their house but reserving the right to continue to live in it.”
“…There is nothing ‘clean’ about replacing a single freight rail operator on the KCS Baton Rouge Line with two railroads, each with the right to operate their own local trains. The resulting duplication of train services and switching operations would make all rail services less reliable, and unnecessarily consume track capacity that could otherwise be utilized for restoration of passenger rail service.”
The filing continues, “As the Board has repeatedly and consistently stated, conditions imposed on rail mergers must be ‘operationally feasible’ and produce ‘net public benefits.’ CN’s proposed ‘divestiture’ flunks both tests.”
On most of its routes, Amtrak trains run on tracks operated by the nation’s largest freight railroads, including Amtrak trains on CN routes from Chicago and through Illinois to New Orleans that have a history of operating challenges and poor on-time performance.
CN has suggested divesting the KCS Baton Rouge-New Orleans line to a smaller freight operator or even that the line be purchased by the state of Louisiana, which would take on the expense of those complex operations.
With a CP combination with KCS, all of that complexity and potential taxpayer risk is removed. CP is supportive of working with all stakeholders to introduce intercity passenger rail service between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, an outcome with far more capacity and operational flexibility, and less risk to Louisiana taxpayers.
CP has consistently received an A rating from Amtrak in its annual host railroad report card recognizing its industry-leading on-time performance record. CP is the first Class I railroad to complete 100 percent certification of its Amtrak schedules.