If they get the Electric Company and Water Works it's likely bankruptcy for us. Put more houses on Oriental Avenue and hope they land there next turn.
Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
61–70 of 100 posts
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#62What happened to antitrust? We were making great progress and then a few months ago this admin totally flipped?
The case for merger is that the the two lines don't really overlap, so it (arguably) won't decrease competition. Meanwhile a larger network would make things more efficient for shippers because goods can travel coast to coast without changing trains. https://archive.is/65ihv
The same was said for Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.
Edit: one problematic impact is drastically higher traffic along the single line joining the networks that runs through Dubuque, Iowa.
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I meant more recently. Lina Khan was making progress and even Tr*mp seemed to be taking a harder line on the tech companies in particular.
Yeah even chuds like Josh Hawley and Matthew Gates were pushing for anti trust
They were for breaking up primarily only the corps that they believe harm(ed) their political party and ambitions. Now the mega corps can just bribe them and/or partner with them and get rewarded with not just not getting broken apart but consolidating even more.
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#64What happened to antitrust? We were making great progress and then a few months ago this admin totally flipped?
It's hard to say if this would be approved even under a normal administration. If UP and NS get to merge, I would expect BNSF and CSX to try and do the same, leaving just two national train companies. But there are still hundreds of Class II and Class III railroads operating in the US, so as long as there are concessions made to ensure long-term trackage rights, it would not necessarily be rejected out of hand.
This would have went through under either an R or D administration. Union Pacific gave 2x more to all politicians than CSX.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/union-pacific-corp/summary?...
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/csx-corp/summary?id=D000000...
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
The case for merger is that the the two lines don't really overlap, so it (arguably) won't decrease competition. Meanwhile a larger network would make things more efficient for shippers because goods can travel coast to coast without changing trains. https://archive.is/65ihv
The same was said for Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern. Edit: one problematic impact is drastically higher traffic along the single line joining the networks that runs through Dubuque, Iowa.
...and what? Did it pan out? Don't leave us hanging!
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happened to antitrust is you guys had an antitrust system that was going way too far (think breaking up regional gas stations too far) and then nixon appointed Rehnquist to the supreme court in 1972, then Reagan appointed him chief justice in 1986. Rehnquist made decent arguments for reforming that that were then taken too far over his tenure (and continuing to this day) and now we have multinational oligopolies…
I meant more recently. Lina Khan was making progress and even Tr*mp seemed to be taking a harder line on the tech companies in particular.
Any hard line taken by Trump is just a cudgel to extract concessions or bribes. Break up Big Tech [unless they follow my orders].
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Interchange" means the train going from one company's tracks to another. It does not involve changing trains. It involves a phone call. Additionally, it probably still wouldn't be possible for most origins and destinations from going coast to coast without interchange because will probably have to use shortline tracks at some point, like the Chicago Belt Railway.
This depends on the train lines and what trackage rights they have with the others. So it's not a given that one company will haul cargo from the west coast to the east coast. Interchanges will continue to be important since even within a specific train company the goods may have to be changed to a different train at least once.
This merger will actually make interchange harder because this coast-to-coast mega-railroad will probably start refusing interchange from the other Class Is.
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disputed does not mean disproven. There are reasonable people who think this merge would be good, and reasonable people who think it would be bad, and perhaps we can discuss pros and cons without acting like asses?
I agree. So here is a map of who owns the railways so we can ascertain who would be affected by the merger. https://stb.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap... I think this is bad becasue it will kill CSX as their lines will be less used for cross country deliveries. CSX already had ana anti-trust suite against Norfolk which was rejected during this administration. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/suprem…
CSX and BNSF will basically be forced to merge to have any hope of competing against the mega-UPNS
Re: Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85B mega U.S. railroad deal
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same was said for Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern. Edit: one problematic impact is drastically higher traffic along the single line joining the networks that runs through Dubuque, Iowa.
...and what? Did it pan out? Don't leave us hanging!
CP-KCS merger was approved in 2023. Created a single line connecting Canada, US and Mexico. So far we have seen streamlined operations, reduced transit times and improved reliability for cross-border freight. Some smaller shippers have reported concerns about rate increases and fewer service options, but it's been limited so far