Clearing the Air at MARS

Author: Kenny Rocker, Union Pacific | January 15, 2026

This week, the railroad industry gathered in Chicago for the 2026 winter meeting of the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers (MARS). It’s one of the largest and most important gatherings of the year. From the podium and throughout the hallways and restaurants, the hot topic was the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to create America’s first transcontinental railroad.

Our team spoke with dozens of customers and stakeholders who are excited about the benefits that cross-country single-line service will provide — with faster service, more reliable delivery and a lower cost structure at the top of the list. We also answered a lot of good questions and responded to some authentic concerns. There is a lot of misinformation being spread around, and we appreciated the opportunity to set the record straight.

Here is what we have been clarifying:

No, the merger won’t reduce shipper choices. This is a textbook end-to-end merger that joins East and West with virtually no overlap. This is an easy claim to refute because all you need to do is look at a map.

No, the merger won’t drive up prices. This is just a scare tactic. A transcontinental network will allow freight to bypass congested interchanges, reduce handoffs, and use the fastest, most efficient, price-competitive routes from origin to destination. Independent economic analysis confirms that a lower cost structure is one of the major benefits of the merger.

Yes, our merger application is comprehensive. We spent more than four months developing detailed operating plans, market analysis and integration impacts, all of which is shared in nearly 7,000 pages of publicly available documentation. We hope the Surface Transportation Board agrees and will work with them throughout the review process to ensure they have the information they need.

Kenny Rocker

Executive Vice President-Marketing & Sales

Yes, the merger will create growth. From conversations with our customers and from hard data, we know single-line service captures greater market share than interline. Our merger will transform 10,000 existing lanes from interline service to single-line and create an additional 84,000 lanes where shippers who currently move freight by truck can access single-line rail service for the first time. We will also be the first to provide cost-effective rail service to the chronically underserved Watershed market, an enormous growth opportunity.

Yes, the merger is good for union railroaders. We have pledged that every union employee at the time of the merger will continue to have a job. We’ve backed that up with unprecedented jobs-for-life agreements with several unions. In fact, our growth projections estimate that we’ll create about 900 net new union jobs by the third year following the merger.

Here is what we share with customers about reliability:

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are well-operated railroads who come to this merger from positions of strength. Both have recent successful experience managing large system changes.
Our networks serve distinct geographic regions, so most traffic won’t be affected. The biggest change will be to streamline routes that currently require handoffs, which will reduce opportunities for service disruption.
The combined network will be more resilient, with greater ability to reroute traffic around disruptions and move equipment and resources to where they are needed.

Contrary to the rhetoric from certain industry association lobbyists in Washington, most customers we talk with understand the facts and are excited about how a coast-to-coast single-line railroad will help their business. That’s why more than 500 customers signed letters of support.

We look forward to sharing more in the coming months about all the ways this merger is good for America, good for customers and good for railroad employees. This is a historic opportunity to transform the U.S. supply chain, support American competitiveness and reinvigorate the railroad industry.

Learn more about the merger and find regular updates at AmericasGreatConnection.com.