The Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern rail merger is a significant and positive step toward building a more robust north-south supply chain.

Key points:

• The combined entity is still the smallest of the class 1 railroads. 
• The approval of the merger was allowed by the Surface Transportation Board because service will improve. What does this say about interlining (transferring cars from one railroad to another)? Everybody prefers one throat to choke.

Intermodal truck-rail units moved by U.S. railroads in the week ending March 18 declined 15.2% % YoY 

4th straight double-digit weekly decline: Source Association of American Railroads.