Well, friends, don't look now, but there is about to be another mega merger of competing railroads in the news. Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National recently announced plans to form North American Railways, an operation to be the parent company of the BNSF and sister company to CN. If approved by American regulators and Canadian courts, the $19 billion deal would create a rail system stretching from Halifax to Los Angeles and the Gulf Coast to the Canadian plains and Vancouver, B.C. The railroads anticipate closing the deal by mid-2001.

Officials from both railroads stressed that this is a merger of equals, and not an American takeover of the former government owned CN. "This is a combination of two very successful concerns," Paul Tellier, Canadian National's president and CEO, insisted at a press conference in Montreal. Both railroads will retain their regional focus, but North American Railways will ensure that they work as an integrated railroad. BNSF will remain headquartered in Fort Worth; CN, as required under Canadian law, will remain headquartered in Montreal.

Hmm. So let's see if I can keep count. Until 1995, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe existed as separate railroads. And then came that merger. Just this year, Canadian National took over operations from Illinois Central, one of the oldest and most storied railroads in history. So basically four railroads are about to become one. This does not even take into account the 1997 Union Pacific takeover of Southern Pacific. Nor does it factor in the recent debacle of Norfolk Southern and CSX slicing and dicing Conrail. Not that one should wax too nostalgic over Conrail, a company that was created by the government out of the ashes of the Penn Central. And certainly everyone knows that the Penn Central was the creation from the New York central and the Pennsylvania Railroads.

Of course, it is easy to blame the mega corporations for greed and not caring about anyone at all. Maybe too easy. In some cases, the evidence stacks up that these mergers are for the good of everyone involved. Take the aforementioned takeover of the Southern Pacific by the Union Pacific. The SP was admittedly nearing bankruptcy. Some inside sources have said the end time was within three years for the SP.

Now I don't want to get off on a rant here, but I cannot understand why it would not have been better for a railroad on the eastern coast to take over the SP. Maybe this isn't actually the best example to use. Someone needed to bail the SoPac out. But would it not have made more sense if, say, the Norfolk Southern took over operations. For starters, a name would have been easy to come up with: the Norfolk Southern Pacific.

Hand it to the powers that be at BNSF and Canadian National. Their new railroad will not run over much of the same territory as the UP/SP did. In fact, they claim there will be no resultant line abandonments or sell offs as a result. Of course, 3000 jobs will be lost. But when the bottom line is the money to be made for the guys in the suits, who cares about a few thousand measly little jobs?

So what's next? You know the men and women in the offices of Norfolk Southern, CSX and Union Pacific and maybe even Canadian National, while on the outside they talk of looking over this merger and trying to decide whether to oppose it or not, they're really getting out their calculators, wiping the sweat off their brow and hunkering down to decide which railroad they are going to ask to the big dance. Oh, and don't count Kansas City Southern out of the picture either. A true North American railroad would want to take advantage of the KCS systems trackage toward Mexico and Texas.

Of course, I should note that I am not an expert on business mergers. I'm basically a railfan with a computer. But the fact remains that the Class 1's are moving too fast, something that a large number of shortline railroads would like you to know. Take for instance the Conrail split. Not only were factories shutting down in the northeast, but trains were late and in some cases, sat one side tracks waiting for crews. There was a recent Trains news wire posting on how the governor of Ohio saw by helicopter the trains backed up on the lines in his state. One crossing was blocked for 18 hours. How one train can block one crossing for almost one day is beyond me.

And you know that if a part of a line's system, actually more than one part of two line's system, the ripples move beyond their own pond, out into the systems of other carriers, both larger and small. And while a large railroad will be able to take the brunt of the damage, a shortline may not be as fortunate.

Then again, as a railfan, what I really hope is this: that whoever takes over the Norfolk Southern (or visa versa) will please -- PLEASE -- order a new paint scheme!

Feel free to e-mail me whether you agree or disagree. Should I get any replies, I will be glad to post them, even if you prove to the people who may not know that I have no idea what I'm talking about, that I REALLY don't have any idea what I'm talking about.

Joseph Hinson
West Memphis, Arkansas
December 20, 1999

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Note: The first two paragraphs of the above relied heavily onreporting from several sources, most notably Trains News Wire on their web site. It was edited by Bill Stephens.