Montreal Quebec - CN and Kansas City Southern (KCS) today announced that the overwhelming stakeholder support for their proposed pro-competitive combination continues to grow with more than 400 additional letters of support filed with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) since the two companies agreed to combine, taking the total to over 1,400, including a letter of support from Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana.
 
The proposed combination between CN and KCS will create a transportation network across North America, enhancing competition, spurring economic growth, and delivering benefits to the local communities in which both railroads operate.
 
The combination, with the recent commitment to divesting the sole area of overlap, and keeping gateways open for customers, creates a fully end-to-end merger and delivers significant public interest benefits for customers, ports, employees, communities, and the environment.
 
No customer will see any reduction in their existing routes.
 
In fact, customers will now be able to access new markets that were not previously available to them via efficient single-line service.
 
The transaction will also provide an enhanced platform for growth, capital investment, and job creation.
 
Together, CN and KCS will be well positioned to deliver on the transaction's many compelling benefits.
 
The benefits of the transaction are underscored by the more than 400 additional letters that have been filed with the STB since the two companies agreed to combine on 21 May 2021.
 
The letters express support for a proposed CN/KCS combination, the use of a voting trust to complete the combination, or both.
 
This brings the total number of support letters for a CN/KCS combination to well over 1,400.
 
CN and KCS will continue to communicate and engage with their customers and other key stakeholders as they work towards gaining approval of their voting trust and completing their combination.
 
Last week's letter was filed with the STB on 24 May 2021.
 
A full copy of the most recent letter filed with the STB appears below:
 
Applicants CN and KCS respectfully submit the enclosed 300 letters from stakeholders relating to CN's and KCS's proposed combination.
 
CN and KCS are encouraged by the enthusiastic response they have received from customers, rail suppliers, ports, state, local stakeholders, logistics providers, and other stakeholders about a CN/KCS combination.
 
This outpouring of support has now resulted in well over 1,400 total letters of support for either the proposed CN/KCS combination, for the proposed voting trust, or for both.
 
283 of the letters being filed today support the proposed combination of KCS and CN.
 
They include a support letter from John Bel Edwards, Governor of Louisiana, who expresses his belief that a KCS/CN "combination would serve Louisiana well by expanding the collective reach of both railroads and bringing new, sustainable, transportation solutions to businesses in the southeastern part of the state as well as an East-West corridor across North Louisiana."
 
Many other letters come from KCS customers, excited by the extended reach of a combined CN/KCS network and the opportunities that this creates for them to reach new markets with competitive single-line service.
 
Other support letters specifically praise CN's and KCS's vision of converting truck shipments to rail, and the benefits that a CN/KCS combination could have for north-south trade traffic.
 
In short, stakeholders are energized about the public benefits that a CN/KCS combination could bring.
 
293 of the letters being filed today support CN's and KCS's request that the Board approve their proposed voting trust agreement.
 
Many letters note that the CN/KCS proposed voting trust is identical to that recently approved by the Board for Canadian Pacific, and ask the Board to similarly approve CN's and KCS's proposal.
 
CN and KCS will continue to engage with industry stakeholders about the proposed CN/KCS combination and the tremendous public interest benefits it will bring by creating the premier railway for the 21st century with a single network across Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
Sean Finn, Kathryn J. Gainey, Olivier Chouc - CN.
 
Raymond A. Atkins, Terence M. Hynes, Matthew J. Warren, Sidley Austin LLP, counsel for CN, Grand Trunk Corporation, and CN's Rail Operating Subsidiaries.
 
Adam Godderz - The Kansas City Southern Railway Company.
 
William A. Mullins - Crystal Zorbaugh Baker and Miller PLLC, Counsel for Kansas City Southern, The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, Gateway Eastern Railway Company, and the Texas Mexican Railway Company.