April 6, 2026 - TRA Newswire -

Attendees at the 22nd Annual Southwestern Rail Conference will get to hear first-hand what a proposed $85 billion merger between two of the largest railroads in the U.S. will mean from an executive at Union Pacific Railroad on Monday, May 18.

Union Pacific's Eric Gehringer, Executive Vice-President - Operations will point out what the first potential transcontinental railroad will look like, proving that Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) get the nod of approval from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in the future.  

Gehringer is expected to speak at 1:15pm on Monday, May 18, during the first of the two-day Southwestern Rail Conference, at the Hurst Texas Conference Center. 

And, as in life, not everyone is on board with the mega-merger of two Class 1 railroads that would alter the way goods could be moved from coast to coast. Some shippers, other Class 1 railroads (BNSF Railway, CPKC, Canadian National) and some unions stand opposed. Critics fear the merger would create a monopoly, higher shipping costs, less competition and loss of jobs. Even Amtrak is taking a stand and seeking assurances on on-time performance (OTP), to prioritize movement of some 57% of its passenger trains that operate on the freight rail network.

Some market observers, investors, analysts and experts have express optimism that a UP-NS merger could create a superior coast-to-coast railroad with the ability to move long-distance goods as fast as trucks, at a lower cost. Some unions have reached pre-merger agreements on job security. 

Later this month, UP and NS will file a revised merger application. The Surface Transportation Board pushed back on the original documentation submitted in March, declaring that regulators need more information.

The Department Of Justice, in a March 3 letter to the STB cited the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust law and said that critical information was lacking. The regulators decided that it needed information to reflect real-time business decisions and forecasts concerning the merging companies’ operations. The revised application could contain highly sensitive data related to the merger.

THE STB, concerned about the threat of another serious rail service meltdown after mergers in the 1990's went sideways, will no doubt be seriously studying the revised application.  

In a statement, Union Pacific said it "remains committed to following the STB process and will be responding to the requests for the information they need to evaluate this historic merger.”