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The Class Is continue to forge co-production and interchange protocol agreements to improve transit times and streamline hand-offs at major gateways. Yesterday, Canadian National Railway Co. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe announced they reached a routing protocol agreement to speed freight, improve asset utilization and avoid congestion in Chicago.

The Class Is agreed to direct traffic flows through more efficient interchange locations during the next three months. Currently, the Class Is interchange in Vancouver, British Columbia; Noyes, Minn.; Superior, Wis.; Memphis, Tenn.; Chicago; and New Orleans.

The railroads plan to consolidate Canadian prairies traffic destined for the western U.S. at a Noyes interchange, and traffic destined for the central U.S. and Texas at a Superior interchange. Traffic moving to and from the south/central U.S. would be interchanged in Memphis and New Orleans to avoid Chicago.

"This [agreement] will create more seamless service for customers and generate more capacity for the railroads," said James Foote, CN executive vice president of sales and marketing, in a prepared statement.