CN, BNSF ask STB to compel UP, NS to provide more merger details

CN, acting on behalf of its U.S. rail operations, and BNSF Railway in recent days have filed motions asking the Surface Transportation Board to compel Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway to provide certain details about their proposed merger plan.

On Jan. 8, CN alleged in its motion that UP and NS, in their merger application filed with the STB last month, were not upfront with their assessment of the merger's impact and failed to outline the full extent of competitive harms that would arise due to the combination, CN officials said in a press release issued today.

“Given the scale and stakes of the proposed combination, the applicants must meet the highest standard of transparency and compliance. The information the applicants refuse to disclose is critical to understand their perspective on anticipated competitive harms and inform the [STB's] public-interest and competition analyses," said CN Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Olivier Chouc. "Rather than trying to convince everyone that there is ‘nothing to see here’, the applicants should instead be focused on meeting the rigorous and heightened standard called for by the new merger rules."

CN’s latest motion builds on earlier filings on whether the UP-NS application is "complete," a standard to be determined by the STB. CN's Jan. 8 filing can be downloaded here. 

CPKC on Jan. 9 told the STB in a letter that it supports CN's motion. That letter can be downloaded here. 

Meanwhile, BNSF on Jan. 9 filed a motion asking the STB to compel UP and NS to produce "basic discovery information" that BNSF alleges the two railroads did not produce in their merger application to the board.

"UP and NS want exemptions from the most basic discovery obligations. UP and NS have not provided basic information that stakeholders and the [STB] need to test UP and NS’s contentions: their board materials, banker presentations, and relevant internal emails," BNSF's filing states.

BNSF continues: "In other words, UP and NS are blocking efforts to see what they actually believe and discuss internally: Whether the merger will hurt competition by reducing service or leading to higher rates for shippers; whether the executive teams actually believe the merger will enhance competition; where the integration could go awry and cause disruptions; and whether the purported benefits are achievable at all, or alternatively, achievable absent a merger."

BNSF's filing can be downloaded here.