Railroad Forums 

  • Will CN ever merge with NS?

  • Discussion relating to the Canadian National, past and present. Also includes discussion of Illinois Central and Grand Trunk Western and other subsidiary roads (including Bessemer & Lake Erie and the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway). Official site: WWW.CN.CA
Discussion relating to the Canadian National, past and present. Also includes discussion of Illinois Central and Grand Trunk Western and other subsidiary roads (including Bessemer & Lake Erie and the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway). Official site: WWW.CN.CA

Moderators: Komachi, Ken V

 #346986  by U-Haul
 
I am guess the answer is no.

 #347073  by Clique of One
 
I hope not for the sake of the Canadian employees. Things are bad enough already.

 #366097  by Dieter
 
CN and Big New Santa Fe have been eyeballing each other for sometime now. If there were another mega merger, that's the most likely scenario.

D/

 #367042  by Dieter
 
Yes, and the Feds put the kabosh on it.

What makes you think they've given up?

D/

 #367628  by Tadman
 
Wow, who gets to lead that one? Rose or Harrison? Talk about two of the most valuable men in the industry, and one's going to need to step aside...

And I hope the headquarters is not in Montreal. Or DFW. Chicago sounds like a great place, though.

 #367638  by lock4244
 
When CN was privatized, the legislation specifically required the company to have it's headquarters remain in Montreal. They'd have to have they legislation amended if they want to move the HQ. It would be a hot political issue in Quebec, possiblty nationally, so it might be tough to get done in a climate of monority Gov'ts and separatist leanings.

 #367646  by lock4244
 
FWIW, I think any further merging will be bad for the industry. There is a limit to how big a RR can get before the left and right hands forget eachother exists. I can imagine the traffic that will slowly wither as the mega-mega RR's focus of only the largest customers, or industry groups. I look at the work the WC people did turning their unwanted property into a real success story... gaining new traffic and customers. Isn't that work slowly being undone by CN now?

Smaller companies are generally better at servicing smaller customers. The economies of scale have already been realized with the current RR mergers. What benefit could a further round of consolidation bring that won't be negated by RR's getting further out of touch and loosing alot of small customers? It take many drops of water to create a river.

 #367677  by Dieter
 
Moving HQ; If leaving Montreal, it would probably end up in Edmonton before anybody ever gave Chicago a thought. CN bought IC, not the other way around. Now it's "Casey Jones, eh?"

D/

 #367777  by lock4244
 
Yeah, CN bought IC. But I think that CN ended up paying IC to take them over! Chicago, geographically is the logical place for CN to headquartered... it is where east meets west meets south. I'm not saying I like the idea, but is does make sense.

 #368061  by SecaucusJunction
 
Hypothetically, if CN and BNSF were to merge, what would be the effect on railroading in the United States? I am guessing there would be a lot of traffic changes.

 #368512  by Dieter
 
You would have your first carrier that could get you from the Pacific in California to the Atlantic at Halifax, all on the SAME outfit's rails. Effect The competition would be screaming FOUL!

I've always thought it was queer that the Americans never had their own transcon line. The closest it's come to was a proposed merger between Southern Pacific and Seaboard Coast Line, back in the mid to late 1970's. That would have made a lot of sense, except that instead of a direct route, everything would dip south and go along the gulf. The best and closest merger before that that would have done the trick was ATSF and New York Central.

D/

 #379795  by lakeshoredave
 
I cannot see any rr's merging for a few years, look how the CR breakup turned out, and almost 10 years later its still not normal or up to the standards that NS and CSX had expected.