by Gilbert B Norman
RandallW wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 1:49 pm Since there are three lawsuits against the STB claiming that allowing the two railroads to merge was wrong, it may make sense for CPKC to not bother to paint anything if they have genuine uncertainty that CPKC will be a thing in a year.Mr. Randall W, I wholly agree with you that the matter of CPKC locomotive livery and the timing as to when there will be a systemwide "reliverying" is really quite inconsequential. For what it be worth, United Airlines, a transportation company far more on the public's "image screen" than is any railroad, announced (surely not planned) a "relivering" of their aircraft on the eve of the pandemic three years ago. Well, there are still, or at least the last time I had occasion to be out at ORD, quite a number of aircraft in the former livery.
Now, here are two pending matters of interest within the judiciary regarding CPKC:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/metra ... r-approval
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/union ... kcs-merger
I don't give the METRA matter a "chinaman's chance". What if, going back to my day at the MILW (70-81), we suddenly "struck it rich" and there was more freight traffic resulting in either commuter trains (which, along with the intercity trains as RPSA70 had yet to be enacted, were run for the MILW's own account when I hired on) or motorists being delayed at X-ings. The answer, I believe, would have been nothing. These communities grew up along the railroad which was there first.
Now so far as the UP seeking to "unmerge" CPKC, I think the courts will remand the whole matter to the regulatory agency (STB) which may or may not impose some conditions somewhere on CPKC.