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1/2/2026
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a link to the UP-NS response filed today with the STB.
BNSF Railway, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, CN and CSX on Dec. 29 told the Surface Transportation Board that the merger application filed by Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway is incomplete and therefore should be rejected.
Today, UP and NS filed a response to the comments filed with the STB by the four Class Is, as well as from the National Grain and Feed Association, whose comments are available here.
The UP and NS reply to the comments on the completeness of their application can be read here.
In separate comments, the four rival Class Is said the merger application fails to include sufficient data and information that the STB requires and, as a result, the board should not accept the application. UP and NS filed their application on Dec. 19, 2025. The STB then called for public input on whether the application as filed is complete.
"As submitted, the application fails to establish that the proposed merger transaction meets the public interest standard on the merits and cannot be approved by the board," BNSF officials wrote in their filing. The application "only superficially grapples with the serious issues the proposed merger creates for shippers, American businesses, the rail industry and the American economy," they added.
CPKC, in its filing, said the STB should reject the application because UP and NS failed to provide essential data underpinning their truck diversion analysis; failed to include a key portion of the UP-NS merger agreement; and, for various reasons, failed to comply with the board's 2001 merger rules.
In its filing, CN said the application fails to include complete market analyses; provides an incomplete network map by omitting overlapping lines in the watershed area; provides an incomplete merger agreement by omitting appendices, schedules and disclosures; and fails to explain how the merger would enhance competition.
CSX, in its comments, said that the application lacks important information on issues such as control of other railroads; fails to identify and analyze the downstream effects of the merger; fails to calculate the merger's net public benefits; and fails to provide evidence for how the merger would enhance competition.