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Canadian Pacific CEO says rail deal possible

In this May 16, 2012 photo, Canadian Pacific Railway locomotives move cars at a rail yard in Calgary, Alberta. Canadian Pacific Railway on Monday, Oct. 20, 2014 said it has ended talks with U.S. counterpart CSX about a possible combination and plans no more discussions. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)
In this May 16, 2012 photo, Canadian Pacific Railway locomotives move cars at a rail yard in Calgary, Alberta. Canadian Pacific Railway on Monday, Oct. 20, 2014 said it has ended talks with U.S. counterpart CSX about a possible combination and plans no more discussions. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh) In this May 16, 2012 photo, Canadian Pacific Railway locomotives move cars at a rail yard in Calgary, Alberta. Canadian Pacific Railway on Monday, Oct. 20, 2014 said it has ended talks with U.S. counterpart CSX about a possible combination and plans no more discussions. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

The CEO of Canadian Pacific thinks U.S. regulators would approve a well-structured railroad merger, but nothing is planned now that talks with CSX ended.

CEO Hunter Harrison said Tuesday he doesn’t agree with the view that the Surface Transportation Board wouldn’t approve any merger.

Harrison said merging the Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. with CSX Corp. could have improved service by routing traffic around the bottlenecks in Chicago.

And Harrison says giving railroads access to customers on other rail networks would improve competition.

But Harrison says CP officials and CSX found they couldn’t agree on several issues, so talks ended after several meetings.

Officials at Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX have declined to comment on reports on the possible deal.

The other large railroads include Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, BNSF and Canadian National.