News / Did objection to US mega rail merger lead to 'shock' dismissal of STB's Primus?

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US Surface Transportation Board (STB) board member Robert E Primus has become the latest victim of the Trump administration’s endeavour to slash and burn its way through regulations.

Telling reporters that the news had come as a shock, Mr Primus had been informed of his sacking in a two-sentence email to his personal account just hours after attending an event to mark a new Amtrak development.

Objecting to the email’s assertion that he was “not in line with ‘America First’,” Mr Primus told CNBC: “I’ve been pro-growth, pro-America since I’ve been here.”

However, sources told The Loadstar that, with the $85bn Norfolk Southern-Union Pacific tie-up currently hanging over the STB, the ousted board member’s previous expressions of concern about rail freight mega-mergers may have been the driving factor in his sacking.

Asked by CNBC what he thought about the looming tie-up that would create the US’ first coast-to-coast transcontinental railroad, Mr Primus said he had said nothing publicly about it.

“I have in the past expressed concern over further consolidation in the rail freight sector, as it can have a negative impact on shippers, rates, and competition, with costs then passed on to consumers, with people paying more for products,” he continued.

“We had numerous meltdowns over the decades and American consumers and manufacturers in this country have suffered with millions of dollars lost; these are all legitimate concerns.”

While Mr Primus did not explicitly blame his sacking on these concerns, there was certainly an implication this was the bone of contention between him and the Trump administration, as it seeks to sign-off on the NS-UP merger – Mr Trump reportedly holds stock in UP.

But several sources told The Loadstar they were not convinced that this was the logic at play behind the sacking.

One said: “They don’t need to fire people to get this merger through, because they do not care what the boards or anybody else says, they just do what they want. In my opinion, they need to flaunt the rules. If you stick to the rules, you can’t get away with what you’re trying to do.

“So they have to be audacious about it. I don’t think people who don’t live here realise we’re in the middle of the timeline right now.”

A US-based logistics operator, sharing the concerns of others who spoke with The Loadstar, said that the administration had “got rid of a very capable and qualified STB board member” – one Mr Trump himself appointed in 2020 during his first term.

The operator expressed further worries over the direction of travel the country was taking, describing transport secretary Sean Duffy as “completely out of his league”.

They added: “This is particularly true when considering he oversees the trucking, rail, ocean freight, and air freight. The DOT is responsible for the utter chaos and freight mess presently killing families on highways and taking such a prominent position in the news.”