CN objects to CPKC's data reporting intentions under STB oversight

CN is taking issue with the amount of data reporting that Canadian Pacific Kansas City wants to submit to the Surface Transportation Board as part of the board’s post-merger oversight.

In a May 5 letter to the STB, CN said CPKC’s reports during the STB oversight period should be available to the public unless information in those reports qualifies as “confidential or highly confidential” under the board’s definition.

In the letter, CN says it objects to what CPKC suggested in an April 24 filing that "the vast majority of the data will be commercially and competitively sensitive, while at the same time also being unnecessary in order for third parties to monitor impacts of [the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger] that may affect them."

CPKC is proposing that the "vast majority of data" should be reported only to the STB, according to CN.

That position is counter to the "transparency" pledge CPKC made in its quest for the STB's approval of the CP-KCS merger, CN officials said.

Also, CPKC's claim that the STB’s “standard practice” is for merger monitoring reporting to be unavailable to interested parties isn’t true, CN officials wrote.

Rather, the standard practice is to make data available to stakeholders to monitor merger integration and provide comments as appropriate on the reporting," the CN letter states.

The filings stem from a request from Chicago commuter railroad Metra and BNSF Railway Co. to participate in the technical conference to be held today between STB staff and CPKC to sort out the kinds of information that CPKC will have to report during the board’s oversight period of the newly merged Class I. The STB denied Metra and BNSF's request.