Comment / The UP-NS merger has a secret escape clause and shippers aren’t allowed to read it

ID 13840572 © Luis Alvarenga | Dreamstime.com

In a nutshell: Four shipper groups are demanding the STB unseal Schedule 5.8, the document that reveals exactly which regulatory conditions would let Union Pacific (UP) walk away from its proposed merger with Norfolk Southern (NS). Two weeks before the revised application lands, the transparency fight may matter more than the merger itself.

The most important document in the most consequential US railroad deal in a generation is one that almost nobody is allowed to see.

Four shipper groups ...