UP reaches agreement to acquire Norfolk Southern

Union Pacific Corp. (UP), Omaha, Nebraska and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NS), Atlanta, has signed an agreement for the latter firm to be acquired by UP in a stock and cash transaction.

The agreement merger would “create America’s first transcontinental railroad [and] seamlessly connect over 50,000 route miles across 43 states from the East Coast to the West Coast, linking approximately 100 ports and nearly every corner of North America,” states UP.

For many years, shippers in the United States and Canada have been served by six class freight railroads, following many decades of previous mergers and buyouts.  The new combination would bring that number down to five: BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Canadian National Railway, CPKC (Canadian Pacific-Kansas City), and the merged UP-NS company.

“Imagine seamlessly hauling steel from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Colton, California, and moving tomato paste from Huron, California, to Fremont, Ohio,” says Jim Vena, CEO of Union Pacific. “Right now, tens of thousands of railroaders are moving almost everything we use. You name it, and at some point, the railroad hauled it.”