STB won’t open new probe of CPKC rail service on West Coast-Southeast intermodal shortcut

NS asked regulators to enforce CPKC’s promise, made while the CP-KCS merger was under regulatory review, that it would maintain service levels on the Speedway, a shortcut for traffic moving between the West Coast and the Southeast.

UP separately asked the STB to investigate whether CPKC was complying with its merger-related commitments.

CPKC told the STB, in a November filing, that the NS and UP complaints were inaccurate and not subject to board oversight.

The Meridian Speedway is a joint venture between CPKC and NS. CPKC operates the corridor, and NS and UP said service suffered after CPKC’s May, 2025 cutover to the legacy CP computer system in former KCS territory in the United States.

CPKC acknowledged service problems immediately following the cutover, but said those were resolved quickly and that by late summer transit times across the Speedway were faster than before the CP-KCS merger.

UP and NS had sparred with CPKC over Meridian Speedway operations since CPKC reimposed an 8,500-foot train length restriction in August 2025. The move affected just one train, an interline intermodal service that UP and NS run from Los Angeles to Atlanta.

The eastbound version of the train typically runs 11,000 feet, which is longer than all but three of the Speedway’s sidings. CPKC Chief Executive Keith Creel said that his railroad’s customers should not experience delays simply because UP and NS do not want to run their train to siding length.

CPKC temporarily lifted the train-length restriction in the fall while it hired additional crews to handle a scheduled second section of the train beginning in mid-November. Once the second section was launched and the 8,500-foot restriction was reimposed, UP complained to the board that dwell had increased at Hollywood Yard in Shreveport, where UP splits its 11,000-foot train into two sections before handing the trains to CPKC.

“It is not clear from the record that the increased dwell time at Hollywood Yard, which is not part of the Meridian Speedway, is indicative of deteriorated service on the Speedway,” the STB said in its decision. “UP acknowledges that part of this increased dwell is because UP is cutting 11,000-foot intermodal trains to comply with the 8,500-foot restriction on the Meridian Speedway. In addition, as CPKC notes, the increased dwell of UP’s ‘second train’ could also be attributable to an agreement between CPKC and NSR that the second train would be scheduled to depart four hours and forty minutes after the first.”

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