SNOW OFFERS FORECASTS ON REREGULATION, MERGERS, ECONOMY

SNOW OFFERS FORECASTS ON REREGULATION, MERGERS, ECONOMY    John W. Snow, chairman and chief executive officer of CSX Corp., predicted that efforts to reregulate railroads will continue, “but members of the Senate Commerce Committee think that legislation” toward that end “will be unlikely in the extreme.”
   “We have to keep our guard up,” Snow told a meeting of Wall Street analysts Wednesday in New York.
   As for railroad mergers, “I would be very surprised if the Surface Transportation Board closed the door entirely on them. There’s a good chance that alliances and joint ventures will become necessary stepping stones on the way to a possible merger,” he said.
   “Future mergers will be more consensual with shippers, and will build on alliances,” he explained. “I think the government will ultimately be your partner in a merger.”
   “The government will certainly look at the effect of any future mergers on the industry as a whole,” he said.
   Snow predicted that the U.S. economy is likely to remain soft for half of 2001. “I think we’ll see a sharp drop for two quarters, but probably not a recession. It’ll be a short and shallow downturn.”
   Asked by an analyst “to assess the political sector,” Snow said “it is fortunate that a number of high-ranking officials in the Bush administration are knowledgeable about all modes of transportation.”