FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller joins ‘Making Cash with Charles Payne’ to debate trucking progress in home and worldwide markets.
Union Pacific Company and Norfolk Southern Company introduced a landmark merger deal on Tuesday that can create America’s first transcontinental railroad, linking greater than 50,000 route miles from coast to coast.
Union Pacific will purchase Norfolk Southern for $320 per share in a cash-and-stock deal. The provide relies on Union Pacific’s unaffected closing inventory value on July 16 and represents a 25% premium over Norfolk Southern’s 30-day volume-weighted common value as of that date.
| Ticker | Safety | Final | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNP | UNION PACIFIC CORP. | 229.24 | +4.50 | +2.00% |
| NSC | NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORP. | 286.42 | +4.04 | +1.43% |
Whereas the deal values Norfolk Southern at $85 billion, the mixed firms will probably be price greater than $250 billion.
SEC DUFFY TO INVESTIGATE LA’S LONG-DELAYED HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROJECT: ‘WHO GOT THE CASH?’
A Norfolk Southern locomotive at a rail yard in Chicago on Friday, July 25, 2025. (Photographer: Jim Vondruska/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
If accredited, this could mark one of many largest rail mergers in U.S. historical past. It is also the primary time a single firm will management rail shipments from the East Coast to the West Coast. The businesses touted that the merger wouldn’t solely reshape the U.S. logistics panorama, however revitalize U.S. manufacturing at scale and drive financial progress and job creation whereas concurrently preserving union jobs.
The businesses additionally imagine the railroad will assist the U.S. compete extra successfully with Canadian railroads, with the aim of reclaiming U.S. freight quantity and bringing again American jobs.
It’s going to additionally tackle rival BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Warren Buffett is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns BNSF Railway in his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. (Photographer: Houston Cofield/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
Presently, U.S. freight railroads transport roughly 1.5 billion tons of products every year.
“Railroads have been an integral a part of constructing America for the reason that Industrial Revolution, and this transaction is the following step in advancing the business,” Union Pacific Chief Govt Officer Jim Vena mentioned in a press release. “Think about seamlessly hauling metal from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Colton, California and transferring tomato paste from Heron, California to Fremont, Ohio. Lumber from the Pacific Northwest, plastics from the Gulf Coast, copper from Arizona and Utah, and soda ash from Wyoming.”
CANADIAN RAILROADS SHUT DOWN OVER LABOR DISPUTE, THREATENING SUPPLY CHAINS
The businesses additionally mentioned the transcontinental railroad will ship sooner, extra complete freight service to U.S. shippers by eliminating interchange delays, opening new routes, increasing intermodal companies, and shortening distance and transit instances alongside key rail corridors. It is usually anticipated to lower freeway congestion, lowering wear-and-tear on taxpayer-funded roads.
The businesses mentioned that each union worker, together with practice crew, mechanical and engineering staff, can have a possibility on the merged entity. Given the anticipated rail quantity progress, there may also be further employment alternatives in cities and cities throughout the mixed rail community, the businesses mentioned.
A Union Pacific intermodal container on an overpass close to the Union Pacific Railroad World 1 rail yard in Chicago on Friday, July 25, 2025. (Jim Vondruska/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
“This mixture is transformational, enhancing the perfect freight transportation system on the planet – it is a win for the American economic system, it is a win for our prospects, and it’s a win for our folks,” Vena mentioned.
The Board of Administrators of each Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern unanimously accredited the transaction, which is topic to Floor Transportation Board assessment and approval inside its statutory timeline, customary closing situations and shareholder approval.
A Union Pacific intermodal container on an overpass close to the Union Pacific Railroad World 1 rail yard in Chicago on Friday, July 25, 2025. (Jim Vondruska/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
The businesses count on to file their software with the Floor Transportation Board inside six months. The businesses are aiming to shut the deal by early 2027.
