The Surface Transportation Board announced Thursday that it unanimously decided to accept Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific’s application for an $85 billion merger, the first step in a long road to a final deal.
The STB’s decision to accept the application comes after the agency rejected Union Pacific’s initial application in January because it was incomplete and lacking on several fronts, including a robust analysis of the combined companies’ future market share prospects. The board said it decided to accept the new application because the railroads “provided sufficient information to satisfy the completeness requirements for a major merger application.”
While the STB accepted the application, it said there remain several components of the revised application that were “unclear or underdeveloped” and require supplementary material. The STB said it wants more information on areas such as the proposed merger’s effects on enhanced competition, public benefits, market share projections, downstream merger impacts and passenger rail.
Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are required to submit the additional information by July 27.
