CN signs voluntary mitigation agreement (VMA) with Village of Barrington
Hills, Ill.

CHICAGO, May 3 /CNW Telbec/ - CN (TSX: CNR)(NYSE: CNI) announced today it has reached a voluntary mitigation agreement (VMA) with the Village of Barrington Hills, Ill., located approximately 40 miles northwest of Chicago, addressing the municipality's environmental and safety concerns with CN's acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E). With this agreement, CN has VMAs with 22 of the 33 communities situated on the EJ&E in Illinois and Indiana.

CN, which completed its purchase of the EJ&E on Jan. 31, 2009, will provide funding for various measures in Barrington Hills, including maintenance of an existing quiet zone, operations mitigation, emergency response training, and safety initiatives.

Jim Vena, CN senior vice-president, Southern Region, said: "We are very pleased to have reached this mitigation agreement with Barrington Hills for our EJ&E acquisition. CN is going the extra mile to reach out to communities along the "J", and we're encouraged that so many of them have worked with us productively to develop mutually satisfactory solutions to environmental and safety issues that may be posed by the transaction. We intend to continue to communicate closely with all communities on the EJ&E in the months and years ahead as CN fully integrates the line into its network."

CN is also working closely with communities along the EJ&E that do not yet have agreements with CN to ensure implementation of safety and environmental conditions in accordance with the requirements of the Surface Transportation Board.

Integration of the CN and EJ&E networks is well underway, and, as contemplated in the original plan, the Company continues to expect it will be completed within three years of its acquisition of control.

More information on the acquisition, including a map of the areas served by the EJ&E and CN, is available on CN's website, www.cn.ca.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information included in this news release constitutes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and under Canadian securities laws, including statements as to the expected completion of the integration of the CN and EJ&E networks. CN cautions that, by their nature, these forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The Company cautions that its assumptions may not materialize and that current economic conditions render such assumptions, although reasonable at the time they were made, subject to greater uncertainty. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results of performance of the Company or the rail industry to be materially different from the outlook or any future results or performance implied by such statements. Important factors that could affect the above forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic and business conditions, industry competition, inflation, currency and interest rate fluctuations, changes in fuel prices, legislative and/or regulatory developments, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, actions by regulators, various events which could disrupt operations, including natural events such as severe weather, droughts, floods and earthquakes, labor negotiations and disruptions, environmental claims, uncertainties of investigations, proceedings or other types of claims and litigation, risks and liabilities arising from derailments, and other risks detailed from time to time in reports filed by CN with securities regulators in Canada and the United States. Reference should be made to "Management's Discussion and Analysis" in CN's annual and interim reports, Annual Information Form and Form 40-F filed with Canadian and U.S. securities regulators, available on CN's website, for a summary of major risks.

CN assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect future events, changes in circumstances, or changes in beliefs, unless required by applicable Canadian securities laws. In the event CN does update any forward-looking statement, no inference should be made that CN will make additional updates with respect to that statement, related matters, or any other forward-looking statement.

CN - Canadian National Railway Company and its operating railway subsidiaries - spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key metropolitan areas of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America. For more information on CN, visit the company's website at www.cn.ca.

For further information: Media: Patrick Waldron, Manager, Public Affairs, [phone]; Investors: Robert Noorigian, Vice-President, Investor Relations, [phone]