(Source: Canadian Pacific Railway press release, January 13, 2022)
CALGARY — Canadian Pacific Railway Limited today issued the following statement in response to CN’s Notice of Intent to file a Responsive Application asking the STB force a divestiture of KCS’s lines east of Kansas City as part of the Surface Transportation Board’s (“STB”) regulatory review of CP’s proposed combination with Kansas City Southern (“KCS”):
CN’s proposal is built on a series of factual errors or misstatements.
KCS’s Kansas City-Springfield line is not “parallel” to CP’s line between Kansas City and Chicago. KCS’s line does not reach Chicago, and contrary to CN’s misleading statements, KCS’s line is not part of a through route to Chicago in conjunction with CN. In fact, there is no direct connection between KCS and CN today at Springfield, and historic interchange volumes reflect the absence of any actual service here. Only four cars were interchanged by KCS at Springfield with CN in 2020 and 133 cars interchanged with CN in 2019.
As part of CPKC, these lines will grow along with CPKC. CP’s proposed pro-competitive combination with KCS is about growth. A future CPKC will not downgrade any lines, these included. Instead, CPKC will maintain existing levels of service on these lines and will not re-route traffic away from these lines, contrary to CN’s assertions.
In fact, the route from Kansas City to St. Louis and the other assets CN wants the STB to force CP to divest are important parts of the combined CPKC growth story providing new, competitive single-line routes connecting CP’s network with customers and port facilities in St. Louis, and connections to eastern carriers. CP anticipates an increase of traffic on this corridor of 30 percent.
CP will be responding to any formal CN request for conditions in the pending STB proceeding at the appropriate time.