CP issues second white paper on its NS merger argument

Canadian Pacific today issued a white paper on how its proposed takeover of Norfolk Southern Corp. would ease rail congestion around Chicago.

The paper is CP's second issued this month in an effort to make the company's case for a merger with NS, which has rejected CP's acquisition proposals three times.

In the paper, CP argues that a merger with NS would have a "meaningful, lasting impact on Chicago congestion for the clear benefit of customers, competitors and the broader economy." Combining the two Class Is would do that by:

• providing options to shift traffic to alternative routings, which would also serve to relieve pressure across the network;

• making operational improvements to a switching carrier and moving processing interchanges within Chicago to underutilized hubs outside the city; and 

• identify a number of other opportunities for operational improvements in train and routing management.