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Rail Merger Claims Lack Specifics, Industry Veteran Says

The CN-Union Pacific settlement has revived the proposed Norfolk Southern-UP combination, described as one of transportation's largest mergers. However, industry experts are questioning its core freight-diversion promises. Paul Tonsiger, CEO of Integrated Multimodal Solutions and a 25-year CN veteran, said the deal's claimed 2.2 million truck diversion remains unsubstantiated. Railroads have not published lane-level details identifying specific shippers, corridors and volumes supporting that figure, Tonsiger said. The projected diversion is roughly equivalent to Knight-Swift's annual truckload volume, making it a modest shift in overall freight flows. The settlement did position CN strategically by unlocking its Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway as a bypass route around Chicago, potentially reducing dwell times for intermodal traffic. However, Tonsiger said concrete customer commitments and corridor-specific plans remain absent from merger applications.