Class 1 rail mergers have sometimes involved major concessions as well as various changes in operations. After the "Mopup Merger" SP was able to terminate what we called the Central Pacific Agreement; traffic originating north of Fresno prior to that time had to go east via the Overland Route. Termination allowed SP to glean more revenue via the Golden State route as well as work with future partner DRGW on traffic via Tennessee Pass to Pueblo and east to Kansas City on the former MP - a UP concession. Later BNSF got rights over the former DRGW - a concession when UP took SP. (When the route east of Pueblo went away, so did the relevance of the Tennessee Pass.)

If CP prevails over NS, short term investors (and owners) will enjoy temporarily increased stock prices from drastic pruning and reduced maintenance. Fiture managers will be the ones to live with the inevitable required concessions such as "open access" where other operators can force their way onto the property with compensation determined by the Surface Transportation Board.

Google "Penn Central 1974" to see what economic regulation did to almost half the industry. Look at photographs of the time to see deteriorated main track conditions, puddles of fuel and could ballast in shop areas, etc.