A coalition opposing the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger got a boost from a powerful House committee that called for a thorough review of the deal that would create the first all-freight transcontinental railroad.
The Surface Transportation Board was urged to conduct a rigorous review of the merger in language added to the fiscal 2027 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill. The inclusion by the bipartisan House Appropriations Committee came in markup June 2.
“This report language sends another clear signal from members of Congress that the proposed UP (NYSE: UNP)-NS (NYSE: NSC) merger must be subject to the highest level of regulatory scrutiny in order to protect against anti-competitive harms, ensure rail shippers have new and enhanced rail-to-rail competitive options should the transaction move forward, and evaluate whether further concentration in the rail industry is necessary and in the public interest,” said the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition. “We applaud continued Congressional oversight of this proposed merger, because the U.S. economy cannot afford a costly deal that drives up prices for rail shippers and consumers, weakens the workforce, and destabilizes the nation’s supply chain.”
The coalition represents the interests of shippers, railroads, labor unions, consumers, and public policy groups.
The bill reemphasizes the STB’s responsibility to conduct a comprehensive review of the proposed transaction to ensure it delivers substantial public benefits, enhanced competition for rail shippers, and protections for the U.S. economy and consumers.
The committee also backed the STB’s revised 2001 merger rules formulated after a series of chaotic consolidations, requiring applicants for the first time to not only preserve rail-to-rail competition but offer enhanced competitive options for railroad shippers.
There are few concerns of a rubber stamping of the $72 billion deal by the STB, which analysts say will restructure the U.S. rail network. Chairman Patrick Fuchs is widely respected in Washington and in the rail industry, having co-authored the most recent surface transportation reauthorization bill. The panel collected 120 million separate pieces of data, including six years of traffic tapes, before the merger filing was even made, and brought on data scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help crunch the numbers.
The STB on May 28 conditionally accepted the railroads’ revised railroads’ merger application. But it held off on the start of the formal evaluation process, requesting UP and NS submit further information by July 27.
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Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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