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Analysts say rail merger could cut shipping costs, ease delays for farmers
Analysts say the $85 billion deal could give farmers single-line coast-to-coast service and cut some shipping times by about two days.
- Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern proposed an $85 billion merger that agriculture economists and transportation analysts say could lower shipping costs and ease bottlenecks for American farmers.
- Paul Prentice, a former chief macro-economist for the United States Department of Agriculture, noted the deal combines complementary networks rather than eliminating competition because the railroads operate in different regions.
- Michael Toth, research director at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, said the merger could cut coast-to-coast shipping times by about two days by eliminating interchange delays.
- The Surface Transportation Board rejected the companies' initial application as incomplete, but Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern plan to refile by April 30.
- Farm and food products make up about 20% of total rail tonnage according to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, while roughly half of all American grain moves by rail.
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Watauga Democrat+26 Reposted by 26 other sources
Analysts say rail merger could cut shipping costs, ease delays for farmers
(The Center Square) – Agriculture economists and transportation analysts say a proposed $85 billion merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern could lower shipping costs and ease long-standing bottlenecks for American farmers.
·Calhoun, United States
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US Rail: Is the STB sugaring the merger pill with a move on switching?
In a nutshell: The regulator’s bid to tear up 40 years of captive-shipper rules lands just as it weighs America’s first transcontinental railroad merger. Coincidence, or strategy? For four decades, US freight shippers captive to a single railroad have had, in theory, the right to ask the Surface Transportation Board (STB) for access to a competing carrier. In practice, that right has been a mirage*. (*Editor’s note: there are several moving part…
Coverage Details
Total News Sources28
Leaning Left2Leaning Right7Center8Last UpdatedBias Distribution47% Center
Bias Distribution
- 47% of the sources are Center
47% Center
12%
C 47%
R 41%
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