Quote:

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Union Pacific Corporation and Norfolk Southern Corporation announced a landmark merger deal on Tuesday that will create America's first transcontinental railroad, linking more than 50,000 route miles from coast to coast.

<snip>

If approved, this would mark one of the largest rail mergers in U.S. history. It's also the first time a single company will control rail shipments from the East Coast to the West Coast. The companies touted that the merger would not only reshape the U.S. logistics landscape, but revitalize U.S. manufacturing at scale and drive economic growth and job creation while simultaneously preserving union jobs.

The companies also believe the railroad will help the U.S. compete more effectively with Canadian railroads, with the goal of reclaiming U.S. freight volume and bringing back American jobs.

It will also take on rival BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

<snip>

The companies expect to file their application with the Surface Transportation Board within six months. The companies are aiming to close the deal by early 2027.

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/union-pacific-norfolk-southern-merge-creating-first-us-transcontinental-railroad

While not on the level of a merger if Exxon was buying Chevron, or Apple was buying Microsoft, this is still a very big deal for the country given ow much cargo is move on freight trains.

It will be interesting if the STB and DOJ approve the merger given how much the company would control across the US. Undoubtably there will be lawsuits by someone, even if not the feds, to try to stop it.

I'm sure we'll hear plenty of how evil "big corporate" is when it comes to debating the pros and cons of the merger.

Politics related because there will be a lot of politics involved in whether or not this merger goes through.

And as the top comment on the article says, BNSF will likely try to acquire CSX.

If the UP/NS merger happens, and BNSF does acquire CSX, it would leave only three Class 1 railroads in the United States; BNSF, UP, and Kansas City Southern, the latter of which is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway.

Can't imagine that gets approved but wow

my UP is down this morning….

You think the rail union strikes were bad last time around...

This is a way bigger merger in terms of the US economy than say an Exxon/Chevron merger if this is approved by the STB. This is a key part of the backbone of the economy. On the one hand, it eliminates the need to interchange for cross country freight but it gets us closer to a very concentrated rail system especially if BNSF merges with CSX which seems almost like a given.

"merger"...

I think the Trump admin let's this go through.

And when UP-NS gets into financial trouble they will get bailed out by the federal government because they are "too big to fail"

Gee, where have I heard that before?


I would be a little more sympathetic toward railroads if they weren't such a-holes to deal with . Between their power of eminent domain and their painfully slow process for utility and ROW crossings, they are as much an impediment to business in this country as they are a public service. They are all of the bureaucracy of the federal government with none of the accountability. The federal government granted them too much power in the 1800s to build get rails across the west, and they have never let go of it.

Rapier108 said:

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Quote:

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Union Pacific Corporation and Norfolk Southern Corporation announced a landmark merger deal on Tuesday that will create America's first transcontinental railroad, linking more than 50,000 route miles from coast to coast.

<snip>

If approved, this would mark one of the largest rail mergers in U.S. history. It's also the first time a single company will control rail shipments from the East Coast to the West Coast. The companies touted that the merger would not only reshape the U.S. logistics landscape, but revitalize U.S. manufacturing at scale and drive economic growth and job creation while simultaneously preserving union jobs.

The companies also believe the railroad will help the U.S. compete more effectively with Canadian railroads, with the goal of reclaiming U.S. freight volume and bringing back American jobs.

It will also take on rival BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

<snip>

The companies expect to file their application with the Surface Transportation Board within six months. The companies are aiming to close the deal by early 2027.

---

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/union-pacific-norfolk-southern-merge-creating-first-us-transcontinental-railroad

While not on the level of a merger if Exxon was buying Chevron, or Apple was buying Microsoft, this is still a very big deal for the country given ow much cargo is move on freight trains.

It will be interesting if the STB and DOJ approve the merger given how much the company would control across the US. Undoubtably there will be lawsuits by someone, even if not the feds, to try to stop it.

I'm sure we'll hear plenty of how evil "big corporate" is when it comes to debating the pros and cons of the merger.

Politics related because there will be a lot of politics involved in whether or not this merger goes through.

And as the top comment on the article says, BNSF will likely try to acquire CSX.

If the UP/NS merger happens, and BNSF does acquire CSX, it would leave only three Class 1 railroads in the United States; BNSF, UP, and Kansas City Southern, the latter of which is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway.

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You still have the CN, one of the only competently run railroads we have, CSXT isn't bad. None of those is perfect, but you can work with them through issues. CPKC is pathetically incompetent, BNSF isn't far behind them. UP is OK, but they will bury any shippers that aren't in the premium space with ridiculous rates etc... Arrogant as hell.

Burdizzo said:

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I would be a little more sympathetic toward railroads if they weren't such a-holes to deal with . Between their power of eminent domain and their painfully slow process for utility and ROW crossings, they are as much an impediment to business in this country as they are a public service. They are all of the bureaucracy of the federal government with none of the accountability. The federal government granted them too much power in the 1800s to build get rails across the west, and they have never let go of it.

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Preach. There is no recourse if you have any sort of disagreement with them, and ultimately, they would be happiest if there wasn't a single roadway or utility line ever crossing their ROW. So you have no choice but to bend to their crazy requirements unless you just don't care if your project dies. However, that would cut off what I have to believe is a not insignificant amount of cash flow through their extortionist fees. And don't get me started on the racket that the flagging companies run...

I have a project building a new crossing that will be done in ~3 weeks, but we won't be able to open the crossing to traffic because UP signal crews aren't available until 1Q 2026 to install the crossing gates. We requested that they put us on their construction schedule in January 2025, and in 6 months they have moved the target date from November '25, to December '25, to 1Q '26.

I dealt with all the US railroads several years ago when I ran logistics for a Fortune 500 company. Rail is a great way of moving product efficiently and safely over mid to long distances.

From a customer service standpoint, railroads can be awful. They're often a monopoly and exempt from most regulation by the STB (Surface Transportation Board). For other monopolies, the US regulates them to protect customers from abuse. Not so with the railroads.

I would love to see something similar to what Congress did with the phone companies back in the 80's. They allowed phone companies to send traffic over their competitors' lines, but had to pay a fair fee for the maintenance and reinvestment needed to sustain them.

Do the same thing for the railroads and make them compete for business instead of abusing their monopoly position.

I better throw another hotel on Broadway

CactusThomas said:

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I better throw another hotel on Broadway

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Broadway is overrated. The best places to own are the orange and red.

I always thought the orange properties were good, until I went to college and then they sucked.

Rail has been the big business of monopolistic industrialists since the Rockefeller/Carnegie era. I doubt that changes, which is why folks like Berkshire Hathaway and Bill Gates (CN) have been investors lately.

Will be curious if this gets approved, no idea or prediction from my keyboard. I wish we had a commercial rail industry (note; that is not a request for government) that wanted to build a high speed pax line to work in conjunction with freight, but accept that won't ever happen, at least in my lifetime.

CactusThomas said:

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I better throw another hotel on Broadway

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As long as they're not acquiring Reading, B&O, etc.

So in the U.S. we're down to UP, BNSF and CSX?

fc2112 said:

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So in the U.S. we're down to UP, BNSF and CSX?

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Kansas City Southern if you're only talking class 1 railroads.

There are numerous class 2 and 3 railroads out there like the Florida East Coast Railway.

Technically Amtrak is also a class 1 railroad.

KCS was bought by CP a few years ago.

The CN (Canadian National) is another class 1. Canadian owned but a substantial network in the US.

MemphisAg1 said:

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The CN (Canadian National) is another class 1. Canadian owned but a substantial network in the US.

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CN track in my hometown MAYBE has one train a month but likely less than that.

UP is several trains a day. As frequent as every 8 minutes depending on the day.

Sounds like it's a main line for the UP and a secondary (or tertiary) for the CN.

If they don't have enough traffic over time to justify the upkeep, they'll close a track.

They're actively maintaining the CN track just not much traffic.. And yes most definitely a UP mainline.

Burdizzo said:

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And when UP-NS gets into financial trouble they will get bailed out by the federal government because they are "too big to fail"

Gee, where have I heard that before?


I would be a little more sympathetic toward railroads if they weren't such a-holes to deal with . Between their power of eminent domain and their painfully slow process for utility and ROW crossings, they are as much an impediment to business in this country as they are a public service. They are all of the bureaucracy of the federal government with none of the accountability. The federal government granted them too much power in the 1800s to build get rails across the west, and they have never let go of it.

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Dealing with them in real estate development is a PIA similar to HEB. 10k lb gorillas always ask as such in any market I imagine.