The agency that regulates America’s railroads denied motions by opponents of the largest proposed rail merger in history to stop it in its tracks.
Several interested parties, including the BNSF and CSX railroads and the American Chemistry Council, had filed motions with the federal Surface Transportation Board asking that agency to reject the joint application by Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.
Union Pacific proposed and Norfolk Southern has agreed to an acquisition for $85 billion. If regulators allow it to go through, the new railroad would be called the Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad.
The combined entity would be a $250 billion enterprise. Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are selling it as the first coast-to-coast, single-line freight railroad in the United States….