![During CP’s Oct. 20 earnings report, President and CEO Keith Kreel commented on the potential merger with KCS, saying “[o]ur excitement about the opportunities ahead with the combined companies continues to grow.”](https://www.railwayage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CPearnings-300x169.png)
Despite third-quarter 2021 supply chain challenges, Canadian Pacific’s (CP) “commitment to the foundations of precision scheduled railroading enabled us to respond quickly and effectively,” President and CEO Keith Creel said during the railroad’s earnings announcement on Oct. 20.
Continual reiteration of statistical data and talking points is a necessary but often tiring aspect of being an industry trade association. The Association of American Railroads, one of the principal voices of the railroads, has over many years been presenting arguments supporting railroad economic, social and environmental benefits, and pushing back against those who would undermine “sound public policy and balanced regulation.” Now, AAR’s advocacy has encountered a different type of potential “adversary”—activist Surface Transportation Board Chairman Marty Oberman, who has been voicing strong opinions in public forums, most notably, shipper conferences.
Karen J. Hedlund’s quest to be confirmed to the five-member Surface Transportation Board (STB) and give Chairman Martin J. Oberman a Democratic majority hit another speed bump Oct. 6 when Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) objected to Hedlund’s Senate floor confirmation.
The Surface Transportation Board on Sept. 30 issued a decision essentially reaffirming that the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern voting trust, which it approved on May 6, 2021, still stands. STB’s decision was not unanimous, however, with Member Robert Primus voicing the lone dissent.
Judge pronounces common carrier obligation for “commuter rail” dead.
Surely you remember the Ash-Pan Act, named after Sen. Ash and Rep. Pan. In fact, it was a 1908 railroad safety law—its name identifying a steam locomotive appliance.
The Surface Transportation Board has added another entry to the “Railroad Industry Dictionary of Obscure Acronyms”: FMLM, which stands for First-Mile/Last-Mile—what Class II and III railroads do best.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) is required by law, on a minimum quarterly basis, to publish the Rail Cost Adjustment Factor (RCAF), defined as “an index formulated to represent changes in railroad costs incurred by the nation’s largest railroads over a specified period of time.”
Well, this one’s on the STB. What to do in the face of the STB’s decision about the voting trust sought by CN in which CN would have gained control of the Kansas City Southern? That avenue has been foreclosed by the Board’s recent decision to reject the voting trust.
Associations representing private railcar owners are rebutting responses to their request that the Surface Transportation Board institute a rulemaking updating the demurrage and accessorial rules governing the railroads’ use and handling of their equipment.
