Railroads In The 2000s: Merger Freeze, Wisconsin Central & Buffett

Last revised: September 13, 2026

The 2000s opened with the Class I map the 1990s had just finished and a federal board that did not want another round. Class I miles of road stood at 99,250 in 2000 and 95,573 in 2010—the same Association of American Railroads series that put 119,758 miles on the books in 1990. Ton-miles rose from 1,465,960 million to a 2008 peak of 1,777,236 million, then dropped to 1,532,214 million in the 2009 recession. The Surface Transportation Board froze major mergers on March 17, 2000. Canadian National and Burlington Northern Santa Fe called off their combination on July 20. Canadian National took Wisconsin Central on October 9, 2001. The railroad subsidiary became BNSF Railway on January 24, 2005. Warren Buffett announced Berkshire Hathaway’s purchase of BNSF on November 3, 2009.

What follows here is 2000 through 2010: a Class I map that froze at seven names, two Canadians buying U.S. regionals, a scheduled railroad at CN that Wall Street learned to watch, a hurricane that took CSX’s Gulf Coast main, and a private purchase of the other western giant.

Chicago and North Western C44-9W 8637 on Union Pacific Clinton Subdivision at Arcadia Iowa June 18 2000

Chicago & North Western C44-9W 8637 on Union Pacific’s Clinton Subdivision at Arcadia, Iowa, on June 18, 2000. Wade Massie photo.

On this page: At a glance · The map of 2000 · The merger that did not happen · Canadian National and Wisconsin Central · Canadian Pacific and the DM&E · BNSF Railway and Berkshire Hathaway · Miles flat, ton-miles up, then the crash · Into the 2010s

At a glance

Item	Detail
Class I miles of road, 2000	99,250 (AAR / BTS series; same series as 119,758 in 1990 on the 1990s page)
Class I miles of road, 2005	95,664
Class I miles of road, 2010	95,573
Class I ton-miles, 2000	1,465,960 million
Class I ton-miles, 2005	1,696,425 million
Class I ton-miles, 2008 (peak)	1,777,236 million
Class I ton-miles, 2009	1,532,214 million
Class I ton-miles, 2010	1,691,004 million
Acela Express revenue service	December 11, 2000. The 1996 order is the 1990s
CN–BNSF combination	Notice of intent December 20, 1999. Called off July 20, 2000
STB major-merger moratorium	March 17, 2000, 15 months. Ex Parte 582. D.C. Circuit upheld July 14
New major-merger rules	Ex Parte 582 (Sub-No. 1), issued June 11, 2001, effective July 11
CN–Wisconsin Central	Announced January 30, 2001. STB Finance Docket 34000, September 7, 2001. Closed October 9, 2001
Hunter Harrison at CN	Chief executive January 1, 2003–December 31, 2009. Scheduled railroad as a date, not a PSR encyclopedia
BNSF Railway name	Operating subsidiary renamed January 24, 2005. Holding company stayed Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation
KCS control of TFM / KCSM	April 1, 2005. Renamed Kansas City Southern de México that December
Hurricane Katrina	August 29, 2005. CSX NO&M Subdivision, New Orleans–Mobile
EPA locomotive Tier 2	New line-haul units, model year 2005. GE Evolution Series; EMD SD70ACe
CP control of DM&E / IC&E	STB Finance Docket 35081, September 30, 2008. Control October 30, 2008
Berkshire Hathaway–BNSF announced	November 3, 2009, $100 a share. Closed February 12, 2010
Not this decade	Buffett closing (February 12, 2010). Harrison at CP (2012). PSR as a brand. CPKC. The 2026 Class I map

Class I mileage and ton-miles from Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts, as tabulated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Information compiled September 13, 2026.

The map of 2000

By New Year’s Day 2000 the western duopoly was in place: BNSF and a Union Pacific that included the North Western and Southern Pacific. CSX and Norfolk Southern had divided Conrail on June 1, 1999, and were still digesting it. Canadian National had the Illinois Central. The Interstate Commerce Commission was gone. Kansas City Southern was still independent. Wisconsin Central was still independent. Soo Line was still Canadian Pacific. Class I mileage was under 100,000. Ton-miles were approaching a trillion and a half.

That is what the 1990s left on the table. The Arcadia photograph is the leftover paint. Union Pacific had taken the Chicago & North Western in 1995. Five years later a Dash 9 still lettered North Western is on UP’s Clinton Subdivision—the old Chicago–Omaha main—at Arcadia, Iowa. The North Western encyclopedia is Chicago & North Western. Union Pacific is Union Pacific.

Acela Express carried its first paying passengers on December 11, 2000, Washington to Boston. The 1996 order is the previous decade. After September 11, 2001, freight kept moving; Amtrak carried travelers the airlines could not. Those passenger encyclopedias are Amtrak and commuter rail. The 2000s freight assignment was different: stop the next mega-merger, buy the regionals that still sat between the giants, and run what the 1990s had already combined.

The merger that did not happen

Canadian National and Burlington Northern Santa Fe notified the Surface Transportation Board on December 20, 1999, that they intended to combine as North American Railways: on the order of 50,000 route-miles, Halifax to the Mexican border. Robert Krebs (BNSF) and Paul Tellier (CN) called it end-to-end. The other Class Is, and a large share of the shippers still living with the Union Pacific–Southern Pacific and Conrail integrations, called it the trigger for a final round that would leave two transcontinentals.

The Board opened Ex Parte 582, held four days of hearings, and on March 17, 2000 imposed a 15-month moratorium on major railroad merger filings while it rewrote the rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the freeze on July 14. Six days later, on July 20, 2000, both boards voted the combination off. Tellier and Krebs said it was not in shareholders’ interest to wait as long as two and a half years for a decision.

The new major-merger rules came out on June 11, 2001, Ex Parte 582 (Sub-No. 1), effective July 11. Applicants would have to show enhanced competition, not only the absence of harm, and file a service-assurance plan. Kansas City Southern received a waiver as the smallest Class I; that waiver is why a later CP–KCS case could still be heard under the older standard. No major two-Class-I combination used the 2001 rules in this decade. The present-tense Board is today. BNSF is BNSF; Canadian National is Canadian National.

Canadian National and Wisconsin Central

The freeze applied to major Class I combinations. A Class II regional was a different filing. Canadian National announced Wisconsin Central Transportation on January 30, 2001, cash at $17.15 a share, about 2,800 route-miles and rights in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Ontario. The application was Finance Docket 34000. The Board treated it as a minor transaction, approved it on September 7, 2001, and the deal closed on October 9. WC became CN’s sixth operating division. The regional encyclopedia is Wisconsin Central; the 1987 spin from Soo is the 1980s.

Hunter Harrison, who had run Illinois Central to a schedule in the 1990s, was CN’s operating chief and then, from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2009, its chief executive. In 2005 he published How We Work and Why. CN’s operating ratio became the number Wall Street watched. That is a date on this page. The later Precision Scheduled Railroading brand, and Harrison’s 2012 campaign at Canadian Pacific, are not.

Canadian Pacific and the DM&E

Canadian Pacific had taken the Delaware & Hudson in 1991. In 2007 it agreed to buy the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern and the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern, the largest U.S. regional, with a paper option on DM&E’s long-proposed Powder River Basin extension. The Board approved control on September 30, 2008, Finance Docket 35081, and control became effective October 30, 2008. Conditions kept the Powder River coal line in a separate environmental review. That line was not built in this decade. The regional encyclopedia is Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern. Canadian Pacific is Canadian Pacific.

Kansas City Southern stayed the seventh Class I. On April 1, 2005, it took control of TFM from Grupo TMM; the Mexican road was renamed Kansas City Southern de México that December. Tex Mex had already come in on January 1. KCS now reached Mexico City and Lázaro Cárdenas under one holding company. The company encyclopedia is Kansas City Southern. Canadian Pacific Kansas City is 2023.

BNSF Railway and Berkshire Hathaway

On January 24, 2005, ten years after the holding-company consummation, Burlington Northern Santa Fe renamed the operating railroad BNSF Railway Company and rolled out a new logo. The parent stayed Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, ticker BNI. Matt Rose rang the New York Stock Exchange closing bell that afternoon.

On November 3, 2009, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced it would buy the 77.4 percent of BNSF it did not already own, $100 a share in cash and stock, about $44 billion including $10 billion of BNSF debt. Buffett called it an all-in wager on the United States. Shareholders approved the deal in February. Closing was February 12, 2010—the next decade. The 2000s fact is the announcement, in the trough of the recession, of the largest purchase in Berkshire’s history. Fort Worth stayed the railroad’s headquarters. The company encyclopedia is BNSF.

Miles flat, ton-miles up, then the crash

Class I miles of road moved from 99,250 (2000) to 95,664 (2005) to 95,573 (2010). That is not the 1980s–90s drop. The big spinoffs had already happened. Short lines and regionals are still short lines and regionals. The today page uses 164,822 (1980) and 136,650 (2020) for a national-network snapshot. Direction is the same; the slope is not.

Class I ton-miles rose from 1,465,960 million in 2000 to 1,696,425 million in 2005 to 1,777,236 million in 2008, then fell to 1,532,214 million in 2009 and recovered to 1,691,004 million in 2010. Powder River coal, containers, and contract grain filled the boom years. The 2008–09 recession took the rest. EPA Tier 2 standards hit new line-haul locomotives in model year 2005: GE’s Evolution Series (ES44AC and kin) and EMD’s SD70ACe. That hardware story is diesel locomotives.

Union Pacific SD90MAC 8223 passing a small memorial near Fairfield Nebraska June 23 2000

Union Pacific SD90MAC 8223 passes a small memorial outside Fairfield, Nebraska, on June 23, 2000. Wade Massie photo.

The SD90MAC was Union Pacific’s high-horsepower experiment at the turn of the decade: 8200-series convertibles on 4,300-horsepower 710 engines, ordered with a 6,000-horsepower future that mostly did not arrive. Five days after the Arcadia North Western Dash 9, another Massie photograph on another former granger main. The memorial in the weeds is in the picture; the locomotive type is the 2000s fact.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. CSX’s NO&M Subdivision between Gentilly Yard at New Orleans and Mobile took the storm along the Mississippi coast: on the order of 26 contiguous route-miles nearly destroyed, six major bridges damaged or gone, including Bay St. Louis. Through freight was back in early 2006. CN and Norfolk Southern had New Orleans plants of their own. The Gulf Coast main is a CSX fact; the company encyclopedia is CSX.

Norfolk Southern C40-9W 9684 with freight 21M at Jamestown Pennsylvania October 19 2009

Norfolk Southern C40-9W 9684 with freight 21M at Jamestown, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 2009. Wade Massie photo.

CSX AC4400CW 5111 leading freight Q317 at Swanton Maryland October 5 2009

CSX AC4400CW 5111 leads freight Q317 at Swanton, Maryland, on October 5, 2009. Wade Massie photo.

Jamestown and Swanton are the eastern duopoly a decade after Split Date, photographed in the recession year. Norfolk Southern’s 21M is intermodal on the Conrail inheritance. Swanton is the former Baltimore & Ohio West End—CSX’s Mountain Subdivision—the same Appalachian coal and merchandise plant as the Pinto photograph on the 1990s page, now in Evolution-era AC power. Norfolk Southern is Norfolk Southern. Conrail remains Conrail.

Into the 2010s

By 2010 the seven-name Class I list was intact: BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Kansas City Southern. Wisconsin Central was CN. DM&E was CP. KCS owned its Mexican franchise. The STB’s 2001 merger rules had not yet been used on a major two-Class-I case. Class I mileage was still about 95,500. Ton-miles had come back off the 2009 floor. Berkshire Hathaway’s BNSF closing was six weeks into the new decade.

That closing (February 12, 2010), Hunter Harrison’s campaign at Canadian Pacific (2012), Precision Scheduled Railroading as a brand, Genesee & Wyoming’s purchase of RailAmerica (2012), Canadian Pacific Kansas City, and the pending Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern case are later than this page. The present-tense industry—who the Class Is are, how the STB works, what the 2026 map looks like—is railroads of today. The 2000s left them a frozen Class I map, two Canadian regionals absorbed, a BNSF that no longer belonged to the public market, a scheduled operating gospel at CN, and a short-line industry still standing on the miles the Class Is no longer wanted.

Sources

Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts, Class I miles of road and ton-miles, as tabulated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (99,250 / 1,465,960 million in 2000; 95,664 / 1,696,425 million in 2005; 94,082 / 1,777,236 million in 2008; 93,921 / 1,532,214 million in 2009; 95,573 / 1,691,004 million in 2010)
Canadian National–BNSF: notice of intent December 20, 1999; STB Ex Parte 582 moratorium March 17, 2000; D.C. Circuit, Western Coal Traffic League v. STB, July 14, 2000; combination terminated July 20, 2000 (CN/BNSF joint statement; New York Times, July 21, 2000)
Major Rail Consolidation Procedures, STB Ex Parte No. 582 (Sub-No. 1), issued June 11, 2001, effective July 11, 2001. 49 C.F.R. §1180
Canadian National–Wisconsin Central: announced January 30, 2001, $17.15 a share (FreightWaves, January 30, 2001); STB Finance Docket 34000, Decision No. 10, September 7, 2001; closed October 9, 2001
E. Hunter Harrison, CN chief executive January 1, 2003–December 31, 2009. Harrison, How We Work and Why (2005)
BNSF Railway Company name and new logo, January 24, 2005 (BNSF news release; NYSE closing bell). Berkshire Hathaway–BNSF announced November 3, 2009, $100 a share, about $44 billion including $10 billion of debt; closed February 12, 2010 (Berkshire Hathaway / BNSF joint release; Associated Press, February 12, 2010)
Kansas City Southern control of TFM, April 1, 2005; renamed Kansas City Southern de México, December 2005. KCS 2005 annual report
Canadian Pacific–Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern / Iowa, Chicago & Eastern: STB Finance Docket 35081, September 30, 2008; control effective October 30, 2008. CP Annual Information Form 2008
Hurricane Katrina, August 29, 2005. CSX NO&M Subdivision, New Orleans–Mobile; Tom Judge, “Bridging to Recovery,” Railway Age, November 2005
Amtrak Acela Express first revenue service, December 11, 2000. EPA locomotive Tier 2 standards, model year 2005 (40 C.F.R. Part 1033). Live American-Rails company pages as linked above

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