WASHINGTON — Other railroads were not the only parties welcoming the Surface Transportation Board’s decision to reject the initial application for the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger. Shipper groups also voiced their approval. The board, citing three areas in which it said the almost 7,000-page application was incomplete, rejected the UP-NS application on Friday, Jan. 16 […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board today issued a setback to Union Pacific’s effort to acquire Norfolk Southern, rejecting the railroads’ merger application as incomplete — although that move offers little clue to the eventual prospects for the first transcontinental merger. The decision will slow the merger process, requiring the two railroads to rework three […]
LOWELL, Ark. — J.B. Hunt executives are disappointed that the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger application did not include more details about the railroads’ intermodal plans. “We continue to digest the application and had expected more intermodal-specific questions to be addressed in the merger application than there were,” Darren Field, president of J.B. Hunt Intermodal, said […]
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena had the crowd laughing Thursday (Jan. 15) throughout his talk to the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers, to the point that analyst Anthony B. Hatch, the event’s final speaker, said that he appreciated getting the chance “to do a set at the Vena Comedy Club.” One example […]
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — You could say that Jim Vena’s latest salvo in the war of words over the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger was downright Shakespearean. Which is to say that the Union Pacific CEO thinks the other Class I railroads doth protest too much. “If your competitor was doing something stupid, what would you […]
Railroads proposing mergers inevitably make ambitious promises and projections, particularly about faster service and more competition. Not all of them become reality, despite the best intentions of railroaders who work at a feverish pace to develop the operating plans submitted to federal regulators. A case in point: CSX, as part of its 1999 acquisition of […]
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — BNSF Railway CEO Katie Farmer still doesn’t see further rail industry consolidation as inevitable if a Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger is approved. Just the fact that the topic keeps being discussed could be taken as an argument against the merger, Farmer said in a conversation with Trains prior to her appearance today […]
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — The CEOs of Canadian Pacific Kansas City and BNSF Railway took aim at the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger during the first day of the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers winter meeting — and urged the rail customers in attendance to voice any concerns they may have to federal regulators. CPKC CEO […]
GAVIOTA, Calif. — Train service has resumed on Union Pacific’s Coast Line north of Santa Barbara following a week-long closure because of a washout. Southbound Pacific Surfliner No. 774 left San Luis Obispo as scheduled at 6:11 a.m. local time today (Jan. 13), the first of two daily Surfliner round trips between San Luis Obispo and […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific, in coordination with supply chain technology group Blume Global, has added GPS tracking to its fleet of 53-foot EMP and UMAX intermodal containers assigned to domestic intermodal service. The containers, owned in partnership with other Class I railroads, now represent the largest GPS-equipped, rail-owned container fleet in North America. The […]
WASHINGTON — The Union Pacific brakeman killed in a grade-crossing incident in Ontario, Calif., last month was riding the lead car on a shove move when his train struck a truck that had entered the crossing while warning lights were flashing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report released today (Jan. 12, 2026). […]
COLUMBUS, Ohio — STG Logistics, the nation’s fourth-largest asset-based intermodal marketing company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New Jersey federal court today (Monday, Jan. 12). The pre-negotiated plan wipes out 91% of the company’s nearly $1 billion debt load and gives it $150 million in new capital to support core business operations […]
