CN issues statement on amended Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger pact

CN (CNI) announced that it continues to review Union Pacific (UNP) and Norfolk Southern’s (NSC) amended merger application submitted to the Surface Transportation Board and will remain actively engaged in this process. The company said, “Despite having addressed certain deficiencies, the Applicants have failed to materially improve the amended application in ways that address the competitive harms of the merger, despite the Surface Transportation Board’s clear encouragement to do so. Most notably, they have not remedied the significant competitive harms posed by the merger, nor have they offered any meaningful competitive enhancements as required under the Board’s new rules. These failures should be fatal to the application. The Applicants falsely continue to call their merger end-to-end. However, as CN has previously demonstrated, the Company continues to believe the areas of competitive overlap and harms are more extensive than those identified in this amended application. CN is well positioned to provide solutions to the issues the Applicants acknowledge, as well as those harms they have yet to address.”