Canadian National And Illinois Central Secure National Industrial Transportation League Support For CN/IC Merger In Settlement Agreement.

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1999--Canadian National Railway Company (CN) (ME:CNR)(TSE:CNR)(NYSE:CNI), Illinois Central Corporation (IC) and The National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) have reached an agreement on issues related to the proposed CN/IC merger.

NITL -- the oldest and largest organization in the U.S. representing the transportation interest of shippers -- has now agreed to support the CN/IC merger transaction before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB).

"We are pleased the transaction has won the support of a shipper group as large and influential as NIT League," said James Foote, CN's senior vice-president, marketing. "This is a win/win outcome.

"The agreement demonstrates, once again, that railroads and shippers working together co-operatively can reach a mutually satisfactory agreement."

The agreement provides shippers with certain protections and guarantees. It states: "The concerns regarding this transaction expressed by NITL to the (STB) have been addressed by this agreement."

NITL had expressed concerns about the potential for reduced competition stemming from a marketing alliance signed by CN, IC and Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS) in April 1998. That alliance has been in effect since then. CN and IC did not share NITL's view, but agreed to an arrangement with NITL that will provide shippers with protections intended to assure effective competition.

CN and IC stressed from the very beginning of the marketing alliance last year that the two railroads planned on competing vigorously with KCS at all points at which IC and KCS compete today, or at which CN/IC and KCS would have the opportunity to compete in the future. That remains the case today.

Canadian National operates approximately 15,300 route-miles of track in eight Canadian provinces and six U.S. states, with principal routes to every major metropolitan area in Canada and to the major U.S. rail hubs of Buffalo, Detroit, Duluth/Superior, Wis., and Chicago. CN is North America's only transcontinental railroad, and Canada's largest railroad serving all five major Canadian ports on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Great Lakes.

Illinois Central, whose principal subsidiary is the Illinois Central Railroad Company, operates approximately 3,370 route-miles of track running north-south between Chicago and the Gulf of Mexico, and east-west between Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska. IC's main north-south route reaches the major metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Memphis, Tenn., New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La. IC's east-west route extends from Sioux City and Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Chicago.