(Reuters) -Union Pacific said on Tuesday it would buy smaller rival Norfolk Southern in an $85-billion deal to create the country’s first coast-to-coast freight rail operator.
Such mergers have historically reshaped the rail map, consolidating regional carriers into some dominant networks, but often come under intense scrutiny from the Surface Transportation Board.
Landmark mergers in the past – such as the creation of BNSF and between Union Pacific and Southern Pacific – have set the stage for today’s concentrated rail network, often triggering both operational gains and regulatory pushback.
Here are some of the largest railroad deals in the past three decades:
Year Merger Deal value Note
1995 Burlington Northern & $4.1 Created one of the
Santa Fe billion largest U.S.
railroads at the
time
1996 Union Pacific & $5.4 The merger caused
Southern Pacific billion significant
operational
problems and
shipping delays
that led to tougher
regulatory
standards
1998 CSX & Norfolk Southern $10.2 Conrail was split
split Conrail billion between CSX and
Norfolk Southern in
a joint acquisition
2023 Canadian Pacific & $31 billion First single-line
Kansas City Southern railroad linking
the U.S., Canada
and Mexico
2025 Union Pacific & First
Norfolk Southern $85 billion coast-to-coast
freight rail
operator
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Pooja Desai)
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