North Cook News

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) approved a $31 billion merger between the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City railways (Becoming CPKC), a Trains.com article said this week. 

The merger will create the first-ever transcontinental railroad running from Canada through the U.S. and into Mexico, with headquarters located in both Calgary, Alberta, and Kansas City, Mo. The merger will go into effect on April 14 and will affect much of the Chicago area as well as communities along the Mississippi River. The STB based the decision on an expectation of increased railroad competition, noting that CPKC will still be one of the smallest Class I railways while also removing tens of thousands of truckload shipments from the roads each year.

Impacted communities have long been opposed to the merger, worried about higher traffic rates and environmental risks associated with a busier railroad line, Trains.com said in 2021. Multiple state representatives from all over the U.S. also opposed the merger, asking for the final decision to be delayed following the East Palestine derailment so that they could create better safety systems and conduct more in-depth environmental impact studies. A coalition made up of communities and leaders in the DuPage and northern Chicago areas stated that they do not want the increase in freight traffic that the merger will bring through their communities, with some towns already seeing triple the usual amount of daily traffic as before. Some communities, such as Roselle, have been fighting the merger for over a year, sending federal representatives and rail companies more than 150 messages expressing their concerns.

The CPKC routes will run from Vancouver through much of Canada to North Dakota, Minnesota and into Milwaukee, where it will pass through the Chicago area before heading west along eastern Iowa into Kansas City. Some lines will also run from Toronto into Detroit and through southern Michigan before entering Chicago. From Kansas City, the lines will run south along the Mississippi River and southeastern Texas before entering Mexico. The connection also holds the possibility for Amtrak passenger trains to run from Canada to Mexico in the future.

The STB held its first-ever press conference this week to explain the reasoning behind the merger approval, a news release from the board said. Chairman Martin Oberman said that the board wanted to be transparent and as honest as possible while remaining committed to protecting the interests and welfare of all U.S. citizens. He also explained several safety factors that the board imposed on the merger before approving it.

"I want to talk about safety and the environment for a moment," Oberman said in the press conference, which was streamed on YouTube. "It’s no secret, and we are well aware of the very real and legitimate public concern over rail safety. It’s always been there but certainly has come to the fore as a result of the derailment in East Palestine. And we’ve heard, from many people, members of Congress, concerned citizens and people fearful for their own neighborhoods. Now, in fact, it is a routine part of the board’s consideration of rail acquisition to review the safety aspects of the transaction. So we were already well underway in reviewing, documenting and measuring what the safety aspects of the transaction are.

"If there is a problem in this country about the safe transportation of hazardous materials on rail—and there is some problem obviously—safety can and always must be improved, and zero accidents should be what we strive for. It is a problem nationwide. It is not a problem caused by or resulting from this merger. In fact, to the extent hazardous materials can be moved on rail as opposed to highways, we are better off the more traffic that can be moved to rail."