News / Union Pacific stays silent on NS takeover – but praises move to cut red tape

Photo: David Johnson

Union Pacific would not be drawn on the state of negotiations surrounding its proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern, but was more than willing to tout its appreciation of regulatory dilution during its H1 investor call today.

Proving the inverse of the Biden years – former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg riled rail operators by demanding sweeping, heightening rail regulations in the wake of the East Palestine derailment – the Trump administration appears keen to slash rules, and quickly.

Asked if the Trump White House’s “lower regulatory backdrop” was leading to movement on one-man crews and a “more efficient future” for US rail, Union Pacific’s EVP of operations, Eric Gehringer, told investors hat there was “definite momentum”.

“The engagements we have had with the FRA [Federal Railroad Administration] have been effective and prompt and what we’re trying to do now is to move as fast as possible, both as an industry and as regulators,” Mr Gehringer continued.

“There is a lot of opportunity to improve safety if we are allowed to implement technologies – those that have been around for a while as well as those that are developing – and we’d love to see these on not only our railroad but all railroads as the net benefit is greater safety.”

Interestingly absent from his response to the question was the position of unions on the issue of one-man crews as it relates to safety, with unions, supported by independent safety experts, having stressed the need for a minimum crew size of two.

Association of American Railroads (AAR) SVP for safety and operations Michael Rush, however, told a federal hearing in 2022 that there was “no evidence that two-person crews are safer than one-person crews”.

Seemingly, Union Pacific appears confident that the objections of workers will not get in the way of efforts to reduce regulated crew sizes, but Mr Gehringer said the measure of success on this front would depend on “the speed we can get through these discussions”.

As to the Norfolk Southern deal, this statement is the extent of Union Pacific’s thoughts on the “advanced discussions”, albeit with “no assurances of an agreement”.