Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) on Tuesday gained regulators’ approval to acquire Iowa Northern Railway Company (IANR), a shortline railroad that hauls some 60,000 cars per year on 275 miles of track, all within the state of Iowa.
The Waterloo, Iowa-based company serves 20 grain elevators, two ethanol plants, two mineral processing facilities, and also handles other commodities such as fertilizer, farm machinery, food, chemicals, and lumber. IANR has 110 employees, 450 grain hopper rail cars, and 30 locomotives.
The approval decision by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) clears the way for CN to combine IANR’s route miles with CN’s nearly 20,000-mile rail network as early as February 13. A combined CN-IANR will offer single-line service to better connect grain, fertilizer, renewable fuels, and industrial markets to CN’s North American network, CN said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
However, on the same day that the deal was approved, 18 workers from IANR voted unanimously to join the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) of the Teamsters Rail Conference, saying they chose to unionize in order to secure the higher wages, better benefits, and improved work conditions that come with Teamsters representation.
In additional—though unrelated—rail union action on Tuesday, members of Local 101R at CN rival Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway (CPKC) voted in favor of strike action if their contract negotiations don’t succeed by January 29,according to Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union. Unifor represents more than 1,200 members at Local 101R who work in mechanical shops, inspecting and maintaining CPKC’s fleet of locomotives and freight cars, and ensuring the railway’s equipment is safe and operational.
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