The city of Elgin has joined forces with seven other suburbs to fight a proposed merger between the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Kansas City Southern Railroad, a merger that, in the words of a coalition press release, will cause “significant adverse impact on the Coalition members’ communities.”
“The ‘Coalition to Stop CPKC’ has been formed to do what it can to stop the plans of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Kansas City Southern Railroad from merging and causing significant adverse impact on the Coalition members’ communities,” according to the press release.
“The proposed merger in front of the Service Transportation Board (STB) would conjoin the two Class I freight railroads, causing at least a 300% increase in freight traffic on Metra’s Milwaukee District West rail line within three years, according to their proposed operating plan. The increase in the number of trains and train lengths – some will be as long as two miles – through the communities would have a detrimental impact on the quality of life for residents and business operations, property values, vehicular movement, environmental, and pedestrian safety, among other harms.”
In Elgin, the costs are astronomical for mitigating the negative impacts of in increase in freight train presence on the Milwaukee District West Line due to the infrastructure that will be required to accommodate the increase
Elgin Mayor David Kaptain
Elgin joins with Bartlett, Hanover Park, Itasca, Roselle, Schaumburg, Wood Dale and Bensenville in opposing the merger, beginning on February 28 when the Coalition will be submitting its opening comments on the merger application to the STB.
“In Elgin, the costs are astronomical for mitigating the negative impacts of in increase in freight train presence on the Milwaukee District West Line due to the infrastructure that will be required to accommodate the increase,” said Elgin Mayor David Kaptain.
On October 29, 2021, Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern filed an application with the STB seeking authorization for CP to acquire KCS.
CP and KCS are two of seven Class I railroads, which are the largest freight railroads serving a variety of industries including agriculture and minerals, military, automotive, chemical and petroleum, energy, industrial, and consumer products.
The proposed combination of these two railroads would be an ‘end-to-end’ merger because the CP and KCS railroad networks do not overlap and would therefore create a single railroad connecting Canada with Mexico and extending across the United States.
