Rail Passengers Association asks STB to deny UP-NS merger application

The Rail Passengers Association (RPA) last week filed comments with the Surface Transportation Board (STB), opining that Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway have failed to show the passenger-rail service considerations necessary to establish a prima facie case for their proposed merger. The association also joined the Joint Shipper Association in a pending motion for summary denial.

The RPA filing argues that the proposed transaction would give the combined railroad an unusually large role in existing and planned passenger-rail services. Of 69 Federal Railroad Administration Corridor Identification and Development Program projects, 43 (62.3%) potentially use UP or NS infrastructure, and 22 overlap at least one segment where UP and NS project additional freight traffic, RPA officials said in a press release.

The association supported its comments with a review of 53 current Amtrak route segment pairings for which UP and NS quantified projected traffic changes; 42 could receive an additional two to 10 freight trains per day. UP and NS have categorized existing capacity as "sufficient" for 31 of those pairings without providing a timetable-based operating demonstration, the RPA found.

The RPA argues in its filing that UP and NS have not provided several forms of passenger-specific evidence needed for the STB to asses the transaction, including a timetable-based operating model, a passenger-specific dispatching plan, publicly testable capacity evidence and a serious assessment of federally selected future passenger-rail services.

"Before the board can decide whether a merger this consequential is in the public interest, the applicants have to provide enough evidence for the board to make that decision,” said Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the RPA. "On passenger rail, they still haven’t done that. They tell us there is enough capacity. They tell us existing agreements will continue. What they still haven’t shown is how the additional freight trains they project will actually operate alongside scheduled passenger trains."

If the STB doesn't deny the UP-NS merger, the RPA has asked for specific, enforceable passenger-rail protections, including protection for Corridor ID projects, independent validation of capacity models and continuing STB oversight.