STB

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are back at the Surface Transportation Board with an amended merger application, again pitching their tie-up as the deal that will create America’s first “transcontinental” railroad — and insisting the revised filing is even more airtight than the first.

A short but strategically placed rail line in the Tidewater is headed for the chopping block, with the U.S. Navy’s push to buy part of the corridor helping trigger a federal bid to abandon the track and end service.

The Surface Transportation Board has denied a request to remove the 40-mile Fort Bragg-Willits rail corridor from the national rail network, preserving the line for continued freight and passenger use.