June 29, 2025 - TRA Newswire -

Sometimes when you try to merge two separate railroads together it goes well..... and sometimes it doesn't.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) found out that trying to merge legacy network Kansas City Southern (KCS) into the Canadian Pacific (CP) system does have it's set of challenges, and it's even raised eyebrows at the Surface Transportation Board over delayed shipments to customers. 

CPKC is making progress in trying to restore customer deliveries after a systemwide upgrade to mesh both railroads digital footprint together ran into trouble in the Southern section of its network. 

Havoc started after the May 3rd integration and caused issues at Laredo and a suburban Dallas terminal, which has now shifted to other yards in Shreveport, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi. Cross-border freight traffic from Mexico to the Southern U.S. has been affected.

It got to the point where Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs called on CPKC to provide the board with a plan to address issues. In a letter to CPKC CEO Keith Creel, Fuchs noted that “the agency has engaged with CPKC customers who continue to report elevated delays, missed switches, and congestion.”  

In the letter, Fuchs noted "As a condition to the Board's approval of the CPKC merger, the Board required CPKC to adhere to the terms of the CPKC Service Promise to address post-transaction service disruptions. As part of its Service Promise, CPKC pledged to monitor service-related metrics on a regular basis. If monitoring revealed adverse trends triggering specified thresholds for three key metrics, CPKC would implement a "Service Action Plan" identifying the root cause of those trends, addressing associated issues, and reporting the Plan to the Board and public."

In a June 20th report back to the Surface Transportation Board, CPKC promised to update its inventory data and restore network fluidity. The railroad said that much of its plan has already been implemented. 

Compared to CPKC's performance before the changeover, the STB's oversight data show higher terminal dwell at key yards, slower average velocity, and decreased on-time performance and industry spot and pull.