CN and Norfolk Southern Announce Routing Protocol to Streamline
Interchange Traffic
MONTREAL and NORFOLK, Va., March 28, 2005 — CN (NYSE: CNI; TSX: CNR)
and Norfolk Southern Railway (NSR), a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern
Corporation (NYSE: NSC), announced today a structured routing protocol
to streamline their exchange of rail traffic at major gateways.
Under their latest agreement – the product of a comprehensive
examination of all inter-line traffic and service schedules – CN and
Norfolk Southern will direct rail traffic through the most efficient
interchange locations. The objective is to improve network capacity,
transit times and asset utilization for through rail car movements. The
agreement will be implemented over the next three months.
James Foote, CN’s executive vice-president, sales and marketing, said:
“This agreement will improve our interline coordination and equipment
cycles and focus our organizations on improving the service product
that we offer to our joint customers.”
Donald Seale, Norfolk Southern’s executive vice president, sales and
marketing, said: “With the demand for freight rail service increasing
at historic levels throughout North America, this is a creative way of
expanding network capacity and enhancing the service options available
to our joint customers.”
The major interchange points for traffic moving between CN and NSR are
Rouses Point and Buffalo, N.Y., Detroit, Toledo, Ohio, Chicago,
Memphis, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala.
The routing protocol will result in a number of changes:
-
Traffic between the Louisiana gulf and the Northeast United States
will be interchanged directly at New Orleans or Memphis, benefiting
from a more direct route and fewer intermediate handlings; -
Western Canada traffic to and from the south-central U.S