First major US railroad merger in 2 decades will go forward

The way has been cleared for the first major railroad merger in more than two decades after federal regulators approved Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern. 

The two railroads are the nation’s two smallest, but the approval Wednesday by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board comes after a lengthy and arduous review because their coupling will create the only railroad linking Canada, Mexico and the United States.