The U.S. Surface Transportation Board approved Canadian National Railway Company’s acquisition of Waterloo-based Iowa Northern Railway Company on Tuesday, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. The decision, which includes several mitigation conditions, will be effective on February 13th. The transaction was thought to potentially have anticompetitive impacts, but the majority of the Board believe the conditions included will prevent that. The Chairman of the Board, Robert Primus, dissented from the majority saying that what appears to be a feel-good romance will turn into something resembling an Edgar Allen Poe novel. The Iowa Northern Railway Company was formed in 1984 and runs diagonally northwest to southeast from Manly to Cedar Rapids with a branch line from Waterloo to Oelwein and another from Forest City to Belmond.
