STB News Updates

The companies pledged four new or expanded commitments in a filing July 27, including allowances for customers to seek temporary alternate rail service in the event of service declines.

Shares of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern slumped the most in more than a year after the STB paused its review of their planned $72 billion merger.

In a document posted to the STB’s website Jan. 16, the agency said Union Pacific’s application to acquire Norfolk Southern was rejected, but it could be revised and refiled.

CSX, BNSF Railway, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern and Grand Trunk Railroad filed requests last week that the Surface Transportation Board reject Union Pacific’s application.

Robert Primus, who had served on the board since 2001, said his firing threatens the independence of the five-member Surface Transportation Board.

The board is currently weighing a merger between Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific that would create a massive single railroad company controlling shipments across the continental U.S.

Changes are being made in a nearly 2-year-old federal government requirement regarding performance levels at four Class I freight railroads.

OMAHA, Neb. — Companies that have plants served by only one railroad may soon be able to get a bid from another railroad if their service is bad enough under a new rule that was proposed Sept. 7.

Three of the five members of the Federal Maritime Commission are urging the Surface Transportation Board to reject Canadian Pacific Railway’s plan to merge with the smaller, but strategically significant Kansas City Southern Railroad.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board began two days of emergency public hearings April 26 to try to find ways to loosen the still-jammed supply chain.