From the Editor — On the brave new merger world, plus "The UP-NS Supplemental Filing: A Virtual Salon"  

Ten months into his tenure as CEO of CSX, Steve Angel believes his railroad is on the better-performance course. For the most part, the Class I’s second-quarter financial results were in the year-over-year win column, as Managing Editor Jeff Stagl reports in this month’s cover story.

“It sounds trite, but you have to make the most important things, the most important things,” Angel, in a rare media interview, told Stagl. “We run a railroad, and we want it run safely, reliably, efficiently and with the highest integrity.”

Former CSX Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Farrukh Bezar believes the railroad was fortunate Angel signed on. Now a managing partner at Lynwood Partners LLC and operating advisor for Littlejohn & Co., Bezar told Stagl: “[Angel is] the adult in the room who can instill a performance-based culture. ... I think he will be successful.”

Success is measured in many ways in Class I country. The word could take on a whole new meaning if the proposed Union Pacific Railroad-Norfolk Southern Railway merger passes regulatory muster.

When Angel joined CSX, many believed the Class I recruited him to better position the railroad to be acquired by BNSF Railway or at least help craft a different response to UP-NS. Angel didn’t discuss the merger or CSX’s position on the deal during his conversation with Stagl. He didn’t have to: CSX has a website detailing its opposition. Angel did tell Stagl that the success of the CSX-CPKC Southeast Mexico Express premium intermodal service “shows interline partnerships are working.”

The extent to which railroad partnerships work (or work well enough) is essence-question stuff in Class I strategic circles: Partner or merge? A year ago, two of the Big Six provided their response. Last month, a third didn’t answer either way, but did tell us it won’t stand in UP-NS’ way.

On July 23 — four days before UP-NS submitted supplemental information supporting their revised merger app to the STB — UP and CN signed two new pacts. In one, UP received expanded operating rights over CN’s EJ&E Chicago bypass and CN obtained new rights over UP’s network between Memphis and Eagle Pass. In the other, which is contingent on STB blessing UP-NS, CN agreed to drop its opposition to the merger in exchange for, among other things, NS’ ownership interest in the Kansas City Terminal Railway and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis.

There’s been a lot to unpack, merger-landscape wise, of late. In that regard, RailTrends® co-founder Tony Hatch and a cohort of experts will share their insights at “The UP-NS Supplemental Filing: A Virtual Salon” to be held Aug. 12 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time.

Joining Tony will be Bezar; David Woodruff, principal at WashingtonGPS and CN’s former head of U.S. public and government affairs; and former STB Chair Roger Nober, a lecturer in law and affiliated scholar with the regulatory studies center at George Washington University. The cost to attend is $349. To register, visit https://www.tradepress.com/payments/NET/webinar/?TradeShowID=618