2000 in Review: Rail.

New presidents, higher rates, fewer mergers are dominant features of rail landscape 2000

JANUARY -- After having a couple of weeks to digest the Dec. 20, 1999, announcement of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway's and Canadian National Railway's merger proposal, the rail industry generally agrees that the time is wrong for another rail merger ... Six months after Day One of their merger, CSX and NS continue to struggle to get their systems back on track ... Executives from the two railroads meet with angry shippers at an open meeting of the Conrail Transaction Council meeting in Philadelphia ... Former Conrail shippers, frustrated with poor service on Norfolk Southern and CSX, take their business to Canadian Pacific Railway ... BC Rail shippers are relieved after a group of the railroad's trade unions reach a tentative agreement after a week-long lockout ... NS, CSX, CP and Union Pacific Railroad take out a one-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal (and Traffic World) urging shippers to oppose the BNSF-CN merger ... Reliant Energy Inc. signs a billion-dollar coal contract with BNSF.

FEBRUARY -- CSX …