WASHINGTON D.C. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The way has been cleared for the first major railroad merger in more than two decades after federal regulators approved Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern.
The impact will no doubt be felt in the Chicago area
The two railroads are the nation’s two smallest, but the approval Wednesday by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board comes after a lengthy and arduous review because their coupling will create the only railroad linking Canada, Mexico and the United States.
In recent months, a number of leaders from Chicago area suburbs have pushed against the merger. They believe it’ll mean more freight train gridlock in their towns, not to mention the potential for derailments.
Bartlett Village President Kevin Wallace joined WBBM this morning to voice his concerns. He said the merger will not only result in higher frequency of trains but longer ones too.
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“Right now there’s anywhere from three to four trains a day, and they’re expecting it to up to 11 to 14 trains, and they’re longer, they’re heavier,” Wallace noted.
Wallace believes the merger is a public safety nightmare for the northwest suburbs.
“This is going to cost lives because, as you’ve seen in some of the other information, some of these trains are going to block every intersection in a particular town…some of the response times are going to go from two to four minutes up to eight to ten minutes,” Wallace said
The Associated Press and WBBM's Bernie Tafoya contributed.