Opposing the UP-NS Proposed Merger
How to Make Your Voice Heard

How your specific industry and your facilities will be
impacted by the UP/NS mega-merger:

• Increased market power for UP, including Day 1 impacts as a result of controlling roughly half of existing Class I freight (and significantly more than half for many commodities)
  • For many shippers and for many origination and destination pairs, there will be no BNSF-CSX option because they are currently served only by UP or NS at origin or destination who have no incentive or obligation to facilitate alternative routes, creating a new generation of captive shippers.
  • Even if customers are fortunate enough to have facilities that can be served by other railroads, UP has a track record of "bundling" their shipper's captive plants, particularly in the southeast chemical corridor where UP has been the dominant rail carrier for decades. Adding NS captive origins and destinations to the volume of commerce UP can "bundle" will make UP's strategy much more effective.
• Operational dominance of UP as it becomes the de facto controller of the key terminals and gateways in the middle of the country.

Concerns about:

• Service impacts from integration – even if you are not directly served by the merger railroad, service failures (routine in prior mergers) will impact the national network, including key shared multi-carrier gateways you rely on.
• UP's claims to pay for this merger through 13% volume growth when UP's last mega-merger resulted in a reduction in their volumes but an increase in their price per unit and record profits.
• UP's disregard of regulatory obligations, including issuing over 1000 embargoes leading to an STB common carrier investigation, and not living up to its prior merger commitments, requiring an endless stream of litigation and STB proceedings.
• UP's refusal to acknowledge any harms despite pursuing the biggest rail consolidation ever, and failure to offer fixes, much less measures to enhance competition which are required under the STB’s merger rules.
• These harms cannot be "fixed." Traditional regulatory fixes like trackage rights and other competitive conditions rely on the merged carrier's good behavior and UP has a clear history of not honoring the commitments of its prior mergers. Shippers in dynamic competitive markets can't rely on protracted legal processes to preserve, much less enhance, competition.

Example Letters:

• American Chemistry Council (ACC) Letter
• Rail Customer Coalition (RCC) Letter