I just read Norfolk Southern has just rejected Canadian Pacific's proposal for takeover. It now looks like the NS will be here and the steam program will be here for years to come.

NS will be here, but no guarantees for the steam program, remember...

Nothing is ever completely safe. And just because NS rejected the offer (thankfully) doesn't mean we've heard the last of this potential merger/takeover.

CP was going to try a share buyup, any issue like this has to go thru the stockholders voting. NS had already rejected the merger and I guess they rejected the share buyup. (creating like a Pennsyvania/Norfolk & Western situation)

Now that Harrison's "friendly" offer has been rejected Mr. Ackman gets to play his unfriendly takeover game. This is where bad things happen to good companies and nobody wins except the banks and the lawyers.

Anyone who thinks the "game" is over when NS rejects a buyout, to say nothing of declaring the NS steam program safe "for years to come," knows NOTHING about how the business world operates.

in 1998, CSX stepped in to make a friendly takeover on "agreeable" terms to Conrail. What was the end result there?

good point I didn't say it was a guarantee the program will be here for years to come just trying to be optimistic tough. the NS is probably going to be in trouble in 2016 with the declining coal market but I am sure the NS will get by that I'm sure

Good for Norfolk Southern. If E. Hunter Harrison wants to make Canadian Pacific a transcontinental, I say he should go and rebuild a bunch of abandoned lines in the eastern United States. That way he can expand CP's reach without upsetting the apple cart for the big six (he will have to face a bunch of red tape and NIMBY's galore, though).

On a more sober note, Harrison has to wake up and realize the days of railroad mega mergers were effectively ended by the chaos caused by the UP/SP merger and the breakup of Conrail, which led to the BNSF/CN merger being stopped and the drafting of stricter merger regulations for railroads. It is only thanks to the likes of IC, WC, and DM&E/IC&E being smaller roads that CN and CP were able to expand out further.