CN to Acquire Iowa Northern

https://www.cn.ca/en/news/2023/12/cn-to ... n-railway/

Still needs STB review and approval but probably means some spin-off lines or abandonments as they parallel in a few spots.

CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) today announced that it has signed and closed an agreement to acquire Iowa Northern Railway (IANR), which operates approximately 275 track miles in Iowa connecting to CN’s U.S. rail network. The transaction closed into an independent voting trust pending regulatory review of the transaction by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB).

Interesting. They have trackage rights on the CP in places. Wonder if those will survive.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

It has been reported elsewhere that INAR hauls around 60,000 carloads a year. Not an insignificant amount. There is lots of grain and ethanol traffic, along with a small intermodal/transload facility in Butler, Iowa. (UP was interested in running intermodal trains to/from there a few years ago. I wonder if that service is still around.)

To me, the IANR seems to be a good addition to CN's ex-Chicago Central & Pacific lines across Iowa, which is operated as regional.

I don't think the STB will care enough about the possible loss of competition. It's a very small transaction in a part of the country full of railroads. (I may be dead wrong.)

I wonder who else bid? Is one of the reasons why CN bought IANR is because they didn't want, say, CPKC to get it?

I have a tough time seeing it happen-- CN has a parallel line and customers lose optionality from going UP, CPKC or CN to being captive CN. STB is going to be harsh