Last month, the host of the “Montana Talks” morning radio show spent a 10-minute segment interviewing a BNSF Railway official about the company’s opposition to a proposed merger between two rival railroads.
To even the most well-informed listener, the segment may have been the first time they heard about the plan to combine the railroads, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, into a coast-to-coast behemoth spanning more than 50,000 miles of track and 43 states. If approved by federal regulators, it would be the largest railroad in America by tens of thousands of miles.
The proposed merger has drawn attention from businesses and Montana’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., who have signed letters urging regulators to proceed with caution and conduct a “rigorous and comprehensive review," the Montana Free Press reports.
With elected leaders expressing concern here in Montana, one would think Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are major players in the state. They’re not. In fact, more than 90% of Montana’s railways are controlled by one company: BNSF.
So what does this (mostly) out-of-state railroad mega merger have to do with Montana? Here’s an explanation:
Who’s merging and why?
While the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern has gotten little media attention in Montana, it’s a big deal in the railroad world. On July 29, 2025, UP announced its intent to acquire NS for $85 billion in a transaction that would create the largest railroad in the country and the first single-rail line connecting the East and West coasts.
UP and NS are two of the six large “Class I” freight railroads that operate in North America. Together, these six operators cover about 140,000 miles of track, with two major railroads in the west, two in the east and two in Canada (although the Canadian operators have a major presence in the Midwest). At one point, there were dozens of Class I railroads, but through consolidation, there are now only six.
Union Pacific was founded in 1862 and built the eastern half of the First Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869. Today, it operates 32,200 miles of track in 23 states, mostly west of Chicago. Last year, the company made more than $7 billion moving freight. Its primary competitor is BNSF.
Norfolk Southern was founded in 1982 following the merger of the Norfolk & Western Railway and Southern Railway. It operates 19,420 miles in 22 states in the East. Its primary competitor is CSX Transportation.
UP President Jim Vena, who is expected to remain as the head of the railroad if his company acquires NS, has said the merger would benefit shippers, the environment and the nation by offering cheaper freight transportation and by taking an estimated 2 million trucks off America’s highways annually. Vena has said it is possible because a single-line railroad could offer better shipping rates, especially in the Midwest, where shippers often have to deal with multiple railroads, thereby increasing prices.
Where does Montana fit on the map?
The Utah & Northern Railway Company, a subsidiary of Union Pacific, became the first railroad to reach Montana when it built its line over Monida Pass on the Idaho-Montana border south of Dillon in May 1880. The railroad eventually reached Butte and Garrison. But today, Union Pacific operates only as far as Butte, meaning it serves only 125 of the state’s 3,700 rail miles, or about 3%. More than 90% of the rail mileage in the state, about 3,400 miles, is controlled by BNSF, according to the Association of American Railroads. Norfolk Southern has no track in Montana.
Who’s for it, who’s against it?
In December, UP and NS submitted their application to merge with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, the independent federal regulator that oversees railroads, which will have the final say on whether the two railroads can combine. Since then, the two railroads and their competitors have aggressively rallied support for and against it. Leading the charge against the merger is BNSF.
BNSF has argued that the merger would be “anti-competitive,” and would give rail shippers — including Montana farmers — fewer options, thus increasing prices. For example, if a farmer near Great Falls ships grain to an East Coast community served by NS, the shipping charge could increase once NS is part of UP. For its part, UP has denied that it would increase rates.
Opponents have also pointed to the chaos that ensued after previous mergers, particularly in the 1990s. Perhaps the most notorious was the 1996 Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger, which led to a “service meltdown” as rail yards across the country were jammed with late trains, and the railroad lost billions of dollars in profits. The railroad mergers of the 1990s were so disruptive that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board imposed a temporary ban in 2000 and later issued new requirements for combining major railroads. A quarter century later, no major railroad has attempted to merge under the revised rules.
While UP is a comparatively small player in Montana, both it and BNSF have been lobbying stakeholders and elected officials here in favor of and against the merger. In December, both railroads reached out to state legislators with their take on the combination. Since then, a number of politicians — including all four members of the state’s Washington D.C. delegation and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen — have agreed with BNSF’s take and signed on to letters to federal officials, urging a rigorous review. Among their chief concerns is the impact it could have on pricing for agricultural producers, but the letters also note potential major impacts on the shipping of consumer goods, construction materials, fuel, food and more.
“If approved, a combined UP-NS would handle more than 40% of all U.S. freight rail traffic… a transcontinental system spanning 50,000 route miles across 43 states,” read a joint letter from Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and co-signed by Sens. Steve Daines, Tim Sheehy and 14 others. “Service interruptions of this magnitude could have severe consequences, especially for agricultural producers. Time-sensitive shipments during harvest could be delayed or spoiled, export windows could be missed, and access to global markets could be sharply reduced.”
What’s next?
The first question for federal regulators to consider after UP and NS submitted their application in December was whether the agency had enough information to review it. In January, the board ruled it did not and rejected the initial application. The two railroads have said they will revise their applications to include the requested information and try again. If the STB does accept the application, the review is expected to take more than a year, ensuring that the issue of mega railroad mergers isn’t going away any time soon.
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
