Union Pacific CEO makes case for $85B Norfolk Southern merger amid pushback

First on FOX Business: Two of the country’s largest freight rail companies are hoping federal regulators fast-track their merger.

Union Pacific is seeking to acquire Norfolk Southern in an $85 billion deal that would create the nation’s first transcontinental railroad, including 50,000 miles of track across almost every state.

The merger is awaiting approval from the Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent federal agency tasked with regulating the rail industry.

“We know that the process through the STB, even though it’s… crazy long, they’ll get to the right decision,” Union Pacific CEO told FOX Business in an exclusive interview. “And the right decision is, you have to do what’s better for the country and more opportunity to move ahead and not look backwards.”

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The two rail giants contend that the merger would allow them to compete with the trucking industry, leading to lower prices, more jobs and greater efficiency.

Right now, if a customer wants to get goods from the West Coast to the East Coast, the freight often undergoes an interchange delay. Vena says combining Union Pacific’s and Norfolk Southern’s tracks would save customers 24 to 48 hours in an industry in which time is money.

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But several labor unions, farm groups and the rail companies’ competitors oppose the merger.

“This merger, if approved, would place nearly half of the nation’s rail traffic under the control of a single company,” the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition wrote in a letter to the Trump administration in August. “As a result, it would harm American farmers, domestic manufacturers, energy producers, and railroad workers, while driving up costs for consumers and putting critical supply chains at risk.”

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Vena disputes their claims, adding, “in the business world, if they thought we were doing something illogical and it made no sense, they would just stay quiet… and let us fail, but we’re not failing. That’s what they’re worried about. We’re gonna have a better product, lower price, more capability to move and win in the marketplace.”

To combat concerns over job losses, the company is promising all unionized employees at the time the deal closes that they will have a job for life.

“Your job might change slightly, but it means that you don’t have to worry about the merger happening and you not being a part of the organization anymore,” said Karl Joost, a conductor based at one of Union Pacific’s rail yards in the Chicago suburbs.

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President Donald Trump supports the $85 billion merger of two of the country’s largest railroad companies, but the companies are still waiting for the OK from the STB. A final decision is expected next year.

When asked how confident he is that the merger will be approved, Vena said: “You always have to have a little bit of doubt, but I’m 99.99%.”