On July 30 2025, Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railroad filed NOTICE OF INTENT TO FILE APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL OF TRANSACTION
SUBJECT TO 49 U.S.C. ยงยง 11323-25 with the Surface Transportation Board.
This merger would create the first coast-to-coast railroad company. Decades of mergers have reduced the number of major railroad companies in the US from over 100 to six. Each merger comes with loss of routes, as the merged company sets out to eliminate ‘redundant’ routes and track, and increased regional monopoly. Redundancy generally means more than one route between two large cities. The places between are railroad flyover country. Lines that are not abandoned are sold as shortlines. The shortlines connect only with the tracks of the original owner, preserving the monopoly.
US railroads prefer the most profitable traffic, i.e., the heaviest possible shipments in the greatest number of cars per shipments, traveling the longest possible distance. Other traffic is generally discouraged through high rates or bad service. Shippers that do not fit the railroad company’s profitability profile find that trucking is superior to anything the railroad offers.
Employees and facilities will also be considered ‘redundant.’ When employees are considered ‘redundant,’ there are some basic economic protections that can be applied, but generally nothing that benefits the person long-term. When facilities are closed, there will be negative effect on the local economy.
This merger would leave BNSF Railway and CSX Transportation at a disadvantage, so their merger application could easily be anticipated, exacerbating the effect.
The only beneficiary of the merger would be the banking, stock owning and trading entities, and corporate interests collectively known as ‘Wall Street.’
STB must be flooded with comments about this merger. Here is a page showing how to do it.