CPKC: Tri-National Considerations CPKC: Tri-National Considerations Written by Jim Blaze, Contributing Editor After a thorough review of my mergers and acquisitions career work, I have reached the conclusion that the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern (“CPKC”) combination has several less-than-optimal locations where overall system performance affecting three nations—the U.S., Mexico and Canada—could be addressed and improved during Surface Transportation Board review. Some of these corrections could enhance the post-merger competition impact of the “USMCA Railroad.” That’s still a goal of the STB, even if the procedural review process is done more quickly than under previous STB rules. Pro-competitive changes, however, could be a really big challenge, requiring more than prior conventional thinking.