Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern resubmitted their merger application to the Surface Transportation Board on Thursday, months after the agency rejected the rail companies’ initial application because it was deemed incomplete.
In the amended filing, the companies said they addressed the STB’s requests asking for more responsive data concerning the projected market shares of the proposed deal and the underlying merger agreement.
Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern said they also agreed to divest from a major switching yard in the Midwest. Absent that concession, the combined companies would own 57 percent of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, among the largest terminals where railcars are switched from one railroad to another to continue moving across the country.
All six of the Class I railroads — Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CPKC, CN, CSX and BNSF — interchange there. Initially, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern asked to have a “temporary controlling interest” in the terminal to “allow them time, if needed, to sell enough shares to prevent Union Pacific from retaining a controlling interest post-merger.” Now they say they will divest or relinquish control of it.
