The CN - KCS Merger, With JJ Ruest And Pat Ottensmeyer

Rail Group On Air

CN President and CEO JJ Ruest and Kansas City Southern President and CEO Pat Ottensmeyer discuss the two railroads’ pending merger in detail with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. How confident are the two chief executives that the Surface Transportation Board will approve their jointly filed voting trust application? What will the capital investment and operating impacts be for KCS while the company is in trust? If the voting trust is not approved, what happens next? Would CN and KCS proceed with a merger application without one? KCS’s New Orleans-Baton Rouge line is the only stated overlap, which Ruest says will be divested if the merger is approved, and which was an anticipated condition of merging. Are CN and KCS anticipating any other conditions? And what, and where, are the most significant growth and service improvement opportunities for the combined railroad? Podcast sponsored by The Greenbrier Companies, Virtual Sample Railcar™.