On July 29, 2025, Union Pacific Railroad announced plans to acquire Norfolk Southern Railway in a $72 billion transaction. As two of the four largest railroads in the United States, the combined $250 billion company would become the country’s first consolidated transcontinental railroad system, and the largest ever railroad company in the United States. Because of the clear harms to competition and anticipated regulatory reaction, no transcontinental merger of this kind has ever been attempted — until now.

As recent history with rail mergers illustrates, this merger would reduce competition in the rail industry, create service and shipping delays, increase prices for shippers, hurt workers, and threaten the viability of many independent businesses. Several major labor unions have opposed the merger, which would increase safety risks for American rail workers, while shipping associations have expressed concerns about possible price increases and more limited service should the merger be permitted. As Wick Moorman, the retired CEO of Norfolk Southern, said in 2016, “A well-executed large railroad merger is an oxymoron. … Every rail merger of significant size, and a couple that weren’t, have been extremely disruptive for a period of time.” This deal is also likely to embolden the other two railroad giants, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and CSX Transportation (CSX) to merge as well. This pair of mergers would make the railroad industry into a national duopoly, a scale of railroad consolidation not even met by the railroad barons of the Gilded Age. For all these reasons, this illegal merger should be blocked.

This brief explains the proposed acquisition in the context of the modern railroad industry, the dangers of any such combination, the stakeholders likely to be most affected, and how the public can push back against this merger. It also outlines the regulatory process and merger rules of the Surface Transportation Board (STB), the federal agency with merger review authority over the railroad industry. An appendix outlines the STB’s regulatory process and review timeline for the deal.