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January 19, 2000 1:40 PM, EST

PHILADELPHIA – Rumbling from the latest proposed rail merger involving U.S. and Canadian companies got louder at the first public session of an organization created to track the progress of the Conrail breakup, which took place in June.

Some of the 300 participants at the Conrail Transaction Council’s meeting carried newspapers containing a full-page advertisement urging “railroad customers” to voice their concerns about plans for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. and Canadian National Railway Co. to combine their operations in a $6 billion deal ("BNSF, CN Plan Merger,"12-27, p. 1).

The ad was signed by the chief executive officers of Canadian Pacific Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Corp. and Union Pacific Corp. Except for the Canadian Pacific, all the other rail operations have been involved in recent mergers that resulted in serious service problems.

While the railroads have not directly opposed the plan to establish a 50,000-mile track network, the advertisement refers to “concerns with the potential impact of the BNSF/CN merger on the future structure of the rail industry.”

For the full story, see the Jan. 17 print edition of Transport Topics. .