Railroad Service

When the merger agreement was initially announced, the rail carriers said it would create the nation’s first transcontinental railroad—which will connect more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states from the East Coast to the West Coast and connect around 100 ports as well.

In a speech at last week’s RailTrends conference in New York, Union Pacific Railroad CEO Jim Vena made the case for Union Pacific’s historic proposed $85 billion merger with Norfolk Southern, in advance of the company submitting its merger application to the Surface Transportation Board.

Late last week, a bipartisan Senate duo—John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)—penned a letter to leadership at the Surface Transportation Board (STB), including STB Chairman Patrick Fuchs, Vice Chair Michelle Schultz and Member Karen Hedlund, in which they stated they plan to “closely scrutinize” the proposed Class I railroad merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, with a focus on being able to demonstrate long-term competition in the freight rail sector, with clear and tangible improvements.

In expressing their collective concern regarding the proposed Class I freight railroad carrier merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, a letter sent to President Trump from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), on behalf of 40 member-company chemical manufacturing CEOs, explained that should this deal come to fruition, it could have negative effects on United States manufacturing in various ways.

Jacksonville-based Class I railroad carrier CSX Corp. said today that Steve Angel was named as its new President and Chief Executive Office by the company’s Board of Directors, effective September 28. Angel will replaced previous president and CEO Joe Hinrichs, whom has departed the company and had been with CSX for three years, joining the company in September 2022.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman spoke with Chris Jahn, President & Chief Executive Officer, at the Washington, D.C.-based American Chemistry Council (ACC). Topics covered included: the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger; railroad service and pricing; and the regulatory environment, among others.

Earlier this month, activist investor Ancora Holdings LLC penned a letter to the Board of Directors at Jacksonville-based Class I railroad carrier CSX, in which it stated that CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs has put the company in the position of having to play “catch up,” following the recently-announced merger between Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS).

While leadership at Class I railroad carriers Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) touted the benefits of this week’s announcement, coming to terms on an $85 billion deal in which UP will acquire NS—to create the nation’s  first transcontinental railroad that will connect more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states from the East Coast to the West Coast and connect around 100 ports as well—feedback from various shipper groups has been less than receptive to the deal.

In this podcast, LM Group News Editor Jeff Berman interviews Ian Jefferies, President and CEO of the Association of American Railroads.

Leadership at two Washington, D.C.-based railroad organizations examined some key industry trends and themes at the RailTrends conference in New York.

A new piece of bipartisan legislation focused on railroad service was re-introduced earlier this week in the United States Senate by Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Roger Marshall (R-KS). Entitled, the “Reliable Rail Service Act,” this legislation addresses the unreliable service and high cost of shipping for American businesses, according to the senators.

Earlier this week, the Washington, D.C.-based Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent adjudicatory and economic-regulatory agency charged by Congress with resolving railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers, issued a decision, calling for continued monitoring of freight rail service.

For December, the most recent month for which data is available, the SCI came in at 10.32, up from November’s 3.0 reading, which was preceded by -3.1 and -0.3 readings in September and October, respectively. December represented the highest SCI reading going back to May 2020.

STB said that this order requires “certain updated information” from BNSF Railway Company, CSX Transportation Inc., Norfolk Southern Railway Company, and Union Pacific. And it added that it has directed the carriers to submit biweekly service reports for the next six months, through May 5, 2023.

In a joint letter to President Biden, 322 local, state, and federal trade associations—spearheaded by the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation (NRF)—calling on the Biden to continue to work with the United States railroad labor unions and railroads to ensure the tentative agreement between the parties, which was brokered by the White House, is ratified.