COMMENTARY BY ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD whiteriverproductions.com


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KEVIN EUDALY


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A Norfolk Southern manifest passes a Canadian Pacifi c train awaiting a recrew at Lehighton, Pa., on January 17, 2015. STEVE BARRY PHOTO


The Final Round


IN NOVEMBER OF LAST YEAR, the Canadian Pacific Railway announced its intention to merge with Norfolk Southern. The announce- ment caught some by surprise, including (it seems) those at Norfolk Southern’s headquar- ters in Norfolk, Va. NS was neither interest- ed nor amused, and as the year played out, it seemed to become a game. First, the Canadi- ans would make a highly publicized offer, then the Virginians would rebuff it, and then CP’s executives would complain about the shortsightedness of their intended and raise the offer. At press time, this has gone to three rounds of offers and rejections. The logic of the merger is uncertain. CP executives have argued that the combination would allow its traffic to bypass interchange in Chicago, reducing the strain on the most congested part of the North American railway network. Hunter Harrison, CP’s CEO, argued that current attempts to relieve Chicago’s congestion through infrastructure improve- ments and operating agreements had failed to make a dent — what was needed was consoli- dated control — his control. Among railfans, the reaction to this


merger proposal has been largely negative. “No! No! No! No more Class I mergers!” exclaimed one fan. “There have been too many mega-mergers,” wrote another. Such opinions are emblematic of a longstanding emotional attachment that many railfans feel toward railroad companies. On the surface, such attachments can seem odd and irrational (and they are), but taken in context they are understandable. This hobby celebrates the anachronistic — some critics of the CP+NS proposal worry about the fate of steam excursions, for example. A negative reaction against the loss of NS has a certain logic in a hobby that is tinged by nostalgia for a past wherein the country was crisscrossed by dozens of independent railway companies, all with their own character and colorful persona. Will the merger between CP and NS happen? Does CP’s logic about reforming


4 FEBRUARY 2016 • RAILFAN.COM


and bypassing Chicago congestion make any sense? All remains uncertain, and by the time this magazine is in your hands, the merger proposal may be long dead and buried. Regardless of the outcome of Harrison’s specific proposals, however, one thing remains true: CP has dared to suggest that the status quo cannot long stand, and that the era of the so-called “final round” mergers may be at hand. While railfans may deplore the idea of


losing yet more railroad identities to history, the uncomfortable truth is that Hunter Harrison is right. All of North American rail history has been building to the moment when there are only two major rail networks from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf to the Great Lakes. If we could communicate with the dead, we would find that men like James J. Hill, Collis Huntington, or Cornelius Vanderbilt long craved a national network. We may sympathize little with the fantasies


of robber barons, but their perspective is inherent to the transportation mode itself. Railways are about efficiency. They are about moving the most goods the furthest distance for the least cost. Logistically speaking, it makes no sense that a railcar in Los Angeles must change from the control of one transpor- tation carrier to an entirely different one just to move to New York, a point in the same nation but on the opposite coast. It makes even less sense that much of the traffic making this journey routes through a single, highly congested metropolitan area. The day when the remaining large railroads of the United States are merged into just two may not yet be here. The day that CP and NS merge may not yet be here. But do not let the romance of the past blind you — a step towards that day has been taken, and its ultimate outcome has been inevitable since 1869, if not long before.


Consulting Editor Alexander B. Craghead is a transportation historian, photographer, artist, and author.


ASSOCIATE EDITOR/ART DIRECTOR OTTO M. VONDRAK OTTO@RAILFAN.COM


ASSISTANT EDITOR LARRY GOOLSBY


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL T. BURKHART MIKE SCHAFER JEFFREY D. TERRY


CONSULTING EDITOR ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD


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