The Surface Transportation Board has accepted the merger application by Union Pacific Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp., and the railroads said it was an important step toward a reinvigorated, more competitive U.S. railroad industry.
The Surface Transportation Board announced a series of data modernization steps aimed at improving rail service reporting, expanding public access to agency data and eliminating reporting requirements it no longer considers necessary.
CN said it continues to review Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern’s amended merger application submitted to the Surface Transportation Board and will remain actively engaged in this process.
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.
The Central of Georgia Railroad Company has filed a verified notice of exemption to acquire more than 2.6 miles of trackage rights near Savannah, Georgia.
The Surface Transportation Board on Friday unanimously rejected the major merger application filed by Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, finding the submission incomplete under federal regulations.
Union Pacific Corp. said it met with customers at the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers’ winter meeting to discuss the proposed merger with Norfolk Southern and respond to criticism of the transaction.