CHICAGO - Canadian National Railway could sue the Surface Transportation Board or Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway's owner, U.S. Steel, but hasn't said which one, to ensure its proposed merger with EJ&E occurs, the Chicago Tribune has reported. For the deal to go through, EJ&E either has to extend a deadline on CN's offer to purchase, or the STB must make its decision earlier than it has announced it plans to.

CN spokeswoman Karen Phillips yesterday would only say the railroad is "considering a variety of options. We felt it was important to make clear we are committed to moving this forward."

The offer to purchase expires Dec. 31, but the STB has no intention of ruling on the merger prior to that time, and U.S. Steel refused a CN offer to extend the offer's deadline.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 No. 3985 will not make an appearance during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., next month after local government officials said they could not accommodate the train's public display. UP will still send office cars for entertainment during the convention.

UP says the Challenger will appear at the North Platte, Neb., Railfest 2008 with display Sept. 19-21. The engine will move from its base in Cheyenne, Wyo., to North Platte on Sept. 18 and return on Sept. 22.

OTTAWA - VIA Rail Canada plans to spend more than $25 million to upgrade its route between Ottawa and Montreal, Ontario's Daily Commercial News has reported. The project is part of $692 million the Canadian government is spending to improve passenger service.

As part of the project, VIA will add a CTC-controlled passing siding near Carlsbad Springs, Ont. The passenger railroad will also install welded rail and conduct other track work over 40 miles of track between Coteau, Que., and Moose Creek, Ont.

Some Ottawa-Montreal corridor trains will face delays while work occurs in the next few months.

ANTIOCH, Calif. - Union Pacific Railroad has begun the process of reopening a 52-mile former Southern Pacific route that would give it a third entrance to the San Francisco Bay Area. In an interview with TRAINS News Wire, UP spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said no timetable is yet in place, but the reopening is moving forward.

The reopened line would link UP's Oakland-Sacramento Martinez Subdivision at Martinez, Calif., with its Central Valley route at Lathrop, south of Stockton. Richmond said that SP closed the route about 20 years ago. UP now stores cars on a portion of the line, but it's mostly unused. However, the line has been maintained to Federal Railroad Administration Class 1 track standards (10 mph), and no abandonment proceedings have occurred.

Richmond said UP has kept the line up to create redundancy in case of a derailment or closure on another line. "Once you abandon a line, that's it," she said.

Rising traffic levels on UP's other two routes out of the Bay Area is driving the reopening. The busy Martinez Subdivision hosts 16 Amtrak Capitol Corridor round trips daily, plus the Coast Starlight in each direction. And the Altamont Pass line, UP's other alternative, hosts Altamont Commuter Express trains between Stockton and San Jose, Calif. [see September 2008 "City Rail"]. So UP freight traffic from the Bay Area must vie for space with passenger trains on both other routes.

Reopening the Mococo Line will take "a lot" of work, Richmond said. "We're starting to do some of that work already," she said. "The challenge where we're especially focused is where our rail line interacts with the public, mainly at crossings. Unfortunately, because this area was somewhat out of service, what ended up happening is that some of the communities built sidewalks, they widened roads, and that took some of the signs and signals out of compliance. At this point we're doing inventory on that."

UP will also bring the "Operation Lifesaver" message to the towns along the line that aren't used to seeing trains.

Richmond said she doesn't yet know what standards the reopened line will be built to, but track will need to be upgraded to handle more and faster trains.

UP doesn't need regulatory authority to reopen the route, because technically the line was never abandoned. However, the railroad is meeting with community leaders along the line to bring them up to date. Richmond said the railroad had planned to hold a formal announcement meeting, but word leaked out before that could happen. A story in the July 25 edition of the Oakley (Calif.) Press told the story of community leaders scared of the potential growth in rail traffic on a little used line.

Regardless, it will be some time before trains return to the line. "This isn't one of those flipping a light-switch type of situations," Richmond said. "It might be in a year, it might be in two years. It all depends on the economy and the need."

CHICAGO - Canadian National Railway will seek legal relief to acquire the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway before the end of the year. The move comes after U.S. Steel, EJ&E's current owner, declined to extend a Dec. 31 stock purchase agreement deadline for CN to close the deal.

In May, CN asked the Surface Transportation Board to complete its review of the merger before the end-of-the-year deadline. However, the STB declined to speed the process by that much, which means a ruling might not come until 2009. U.S. Steel's decision not to extend the stock purchase agreement deadline leaves Canada's largest railroad in a tough spot.

CN has not yet specified the nature of its "legal relief" against the STB, saying more details would come in the future.