WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board today proposed a procedural schedule it will follow as part of its review of Union Pacific’s $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern.
The schedule the board is proposing slightly tweaks the schedule that UP and NS outlined in July.
The railroads had proposed reducing the amount of time the Justice Department and Transportation Department would have to submit comments. But the board’s proposed schedule would allow Justice and Transportation officials to submit comments 15 days after the deadline for other railroads, shippers, labor unions, communities, and other stakeholders. That’s the normal timeline for both departments to submit comments in merger reviews.
The STB also said dates for public hearings, the close of the record, and a date for a final decision and its effective date would remain “to be determined.”
UP and NS had asked for the public hearings to be scheduled 300 days after submission of their merger application. The railroads also had sought to have the close of the public record — which then starts a 90-day clock ticking for the board to issue a decision — set to coincide with the end of the public hearings. And they had proposed that the decision become effective 420 days after submission of the application.
The railroads are expected to file the application between Oct. 29 and Jan. 29, but executives have said they are aiming for the earlier part of the three-month window.
Written comments on the STB’s proposed schedule are due by Oct. 16.
“The dates proposed in this decision are subject to change depending on the comments received or other circumstances,” the board said. “Should the Board accept an application in this proceeding, the Board anticipates that it would adopt a procedural schedule in that decision.”
The board said it will address environmental review issues in a subsequent decision.
Correction: This story originally ran with a headline suggesting that the board’s proposed schedule would lengthen the review process. While the proposal does give the Justice Department and Transportation Department more time to file comments than what the railroads had proposed, the board’s schedule does not lengthen the review timeline.
