CSX voices objection to UP-NS request for expedited merger consideration (corrected)

WASHINGTON — CSX Transportation has objected to the accelerated schedule Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have proposed for Surface Transportation Board consideration of the UP-NS merger, with CSX offering its own proposal for a slightly longer schedule than an STB proposal that largely follows an earlier UP-NS proposal.

CSX says the proposed shorter timeline “imposes unnecessary burdens on other parties.”

UP and NS have proposed a 345-day schedule after previously outlining plan for a 390-day timeline [see “UP and NS seek faster merger review …,” Trains.com, Oct. 30, 2025]. An STB proposal largely followed the initial UP-NS plan [see “STB proposes schedule …,” Trains.com, Sept. 26, 2025], but left open the possibility to use the full 485 days allowed by statute. But in a Nov. 19 filing, CSX says the board is “faced with an unprecedented proposal where many highly complex issues could arise under never-applied standards” and should use “the full statutory period provided.”

The merger will be the first considered by the STB under standards adopted in 2001 that require a merger to enhance competition and consider its role in further industry consolidation. UP and NS, in calling for the shorter schedule, say the companies’ preliminary work has shown the merger’s end-to-end nature “does not present any complex competitive or operating issues.”

But the CSX filing notes that the board “has already recognized the issues presented may be numerous and highly complex.” And it says that, when the board was developing its new merger rules, UP comments specifically cautioned against a expedited schedule in the first case under those rules.

CSX also notes that the UP-NS schedule proposes “to cut 15 critical days from the already scant time non-applicants will have to digest, and then prepare comments, requests for conditions, and any responsive applications to the application … In none of the recent major merger proceedings, all involving much smaller transactions reviewed under less exacting rules, was this period shorter than 90 days after an application was accepted.”

The CSX filing also asks the board to require UP and NS to use 2024 data in their analysis of the merger’s impact, noting the railroads had said they planned to use 2023 as the base year for that analysis. Making note that the board has already ordered UP and NS to provide traffic information from 2019 through 2024, the CSX filing argues that relying principally on 2023 for the analysis “would fail to reflect the most current market realities and operational performance available, and … could render that analysis inherently flawed.”

CSX says its own proposal for a 395-day schedule would address these and other concerns in its filing.

CSX is not alone with its concerns over the schedule to consider the merger. A group of passenger rail advocacy groups previously told the board they objected to the accelerated schedule as part of concerns over what role parties other than the merger applicants would play in the STB’s process [see “Coalition of rail, environmental advocacy groups …,” Trains.com, Nov. 14, 2025]. And today (Nov. 20, 2025), the Reading & Northern Railroad filed its own comments, saying that UP, NS, and the board have not provided a reason “for not allowing the maximum amount of time permitted under the statute for the creation of the most fulsome record possible.”

— Updated at 4:40 p.m. CT to note Reading & Northern filing; updated at 6:18 p.m. CT to correct details of schedules proposed by UP-NS and the STB. To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.