"The proposed $85 billion merger of Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific isn't about creating a more efficient coast-to-coast network - it's about concentrating private power and maximizing shareholder profits at the expense of workers, shippers, and the public. This is a public-interest crisis about who controls essential infrastructure: Wall Street or the American people. While executives promise efficiency and connectivity, past mergers show the truth - job cuts, safety shortcuts, degraded service, and higher costs."
"Since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 deregulated the industry, 40 Class I carriers have collapsed into just six. Employment has fallen from 500,000 to fewer than 153,000. The network has shrunk from 240,000 miles of track to about 140,000, leaving communities stranded and shippers captive to a single carrier. Deregulation was sold as efficiency - in practice, it's been monopoly capitalism on rails."
The $85 billion merger of Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific would concentrate corporate power, prioritize shareholder returns, and harm workers, shippers, and public interest. Past mergers produced job cuts, safety shortcuts, degraded service, and higher costs. Deregulation since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 reduced Class I carriers from 40 to six, employment from 500,000 to fewer than 153,000, and trackage from 240,000 miles to about 140,000, leaving communities stranded and shippers captive. Under Precision Scheduled Railroading carriers gutted workforces, abandoned less-profitable routes, and prioritized buybacks—nearly $200 billion between 2010 and 2020—over infrastructure investment. Regulators such as the Surface Transportation Board and Federal Railroad Administration are understaffed and ill-equipped to protect the public interest.
Read at Streetsblog
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