In February 2022, eight suburban Chicago communities banded together to form The Coalition to Stop CPKC in support of protecting the quality of life for our children, families, businesses and property owners by opposing the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.

Background

On October 29, 2021, Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, et al. (CP) and Kansas City Southern, et al. (KCS) filed an application with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) seeking authorization from the STB 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.

The approval of the merger is expected to increase freight traffic on the Milwaukee District West rail line through our communities by up to 300% in three years.

This increase of freight train traffic and train lengths through our communities is likely to have a detrimental impact on the quality of life for all of us.

The Coalition to Stop CPKC will do everything we can to prevent this merger from occurring in order to do what is best for each of our communities.