Chicago Illinois USA - Chicago commuter operator Metra has asked the Surface Transportation Board for more time to file comments on the proposed CP/KCS merger, saying CP had originally "filed a false response" to Metra's request for information, and only recently provided an incomplete set of documents Metra says it needs to assess the impact of the merger on its operations.
 
The filing with the STB, originally submitted on 18 Feb 2022, and re-submitted with a date correction on Tuesday, follows an earlier Metra request to the STB to force CP to hand over information.
 
The new filing asks for an additional 30 days, until 30 Mar 2022, to file the commuter agency's comments saying it had been notified on 15 Feb 2022 that CP had provided "hundreds if not thousands of documents," including Rail Traffic Controller modeling data on how the merger would affect traffic on Metra lines where CP operates, which Metra says it first requested in November 2021.
 
CP operates on two Metra-owned and operated routes, the Milwaukee District-North, and the Milwaukee District-West lines.
 
That information, Metra says, "directly contradicts" earlier CP assertions that no such modeling had been done since at least 2017.
 
"Metra is now left scrambling to understand what CP's previously undisclosed modeling indicates regarding the transaction's impacts on Metra service," the filing says.
 
"Metra is extremely troubled that CP's apparently misleading responses to Metra's previous discovery requests will now provide Metra no time to digest and incorporate information it has requested for many months but only now received."
 
The agency says that "while time is tight, Metra believes it can conduct an adequate analysis with a 30 day extension."
 
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