FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 22, 2022

CONTACT: Ashley Woolheater, woolheater@openmarketsinstitute.org 

WASHINGTON- The Open Markets Institute led a letter to the Surface Transportation Board alongside ten other public interest groups and allies, urging the board to oppose the merger between major rail carriers Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern that is currently under evaluation. 

 The letter warns that the potential Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger threatens capacity critical to U.S. supply chains at the international junction in Laredo, TX, the gateway to 54% of all U.S.-Mexico rail traffic. 

 The merger would further concentrate an “already highly monopolized sector,” and likely result in further diminished rail capacity and worse choices for workers while Wall Street investors cut costs in order to squeeze out short-term profits, as we have seen with previous rail mergers: 

 “At a time when we desperately need to be diverting more freight and passenger traffic to railroads in order to reduce carbon emissions and alleviate truck and auto congestion, we are threatened by modern-day Wall Street robber barons who abuse the market power of today’s consolidated railroads to boost short-term profits through downsizing and degraded services.” 

 The letter also invokes President Biden’s 2021 executive order to promote greater competition, which explicitly called on the Surface Transportation Board to protect against anti-competitive practices by the railroads:  

 “The Board should heed this directive in evaluating this anti-competitive merger. Far from approving more consolidation based on wishful thinking and unlikely benefits, the board should focus on requiring existing railroads to live up to their obligations to the public as common carriers, including by insisting on non-discriminatory freight service to smaller shippers and communities as well as open access to Amtrak and other passenger rail providers.” 

 Read the full letter below or download here.

Signers also include Solutionary Rail, American Family Voices, Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Demand Progress, American Economic Liberties Project, Farm Action, Food & Water Watch, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), Public Citizen, and Revolving Door Project. 

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The Open Markets Institute is a team of journalists, researchers, lawyers, economists, and advocates working together to expose and reverse the stranglehold that corporate monopolies have on our country.  Learn more at www.openmarketsinstitute.org.