Comment / Blockbuster rail merger: Guess what? All rivals hate it, but UP & NS don't care

ID 15341292 © Anna Baburkina | Dreamstime.com

Key takeaway: The comment period on the amended UP-NS filing has closed. Four Class I competitors, a major shipper group, and a string of transit agencies all said the same thing: reject it. But the specific allegations, from deleted evidence to a pricing program that covers less than 1% of rail traffic, are more damaging than the headlines suggest.

The comment period on Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern’s (NS) revised merger application closed last week on 8 May, and the ...