Commenter Wrote:
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> Combining Union Pacific's railroad, which spans
> much of the western U.S., with Norfolk Southern's
> network in the east, would create the country's
> first transcontinental rail company, stretching
> from coast to coast. For shippers, that would mean
> single-line pricing rather than dealing with
> various operators across separate rail networks to
> get from point A to point B. It also would allow
> for faster delivery thanks to the elimination of
> interchanges and lower costs.

Call me, when Union Pacific starts offering short-haul service, intercity service, and rebuilds thousands and thousands of miles of industrial spurs and sidings, and increases the number of local switch jobs from cities large and small.

Most of the trucks I see? Dump trucks hauling gravel from a quarry to a construction site 10 miles away. Grocery store trucks from a warehouse to a store 20 miles away. Business the railroads haven't ever wanted and won't ever want. Those trucks still occupy our roads, and Norfolk Southern can't help out with on the west coast. Hell, Union Pacific can't even figure out an I-5 corridor service that attracts traffic - they've done a great job scaring it away. If UP is serious about attracting business, the last thing it should do is consider a merger - it should focus on attracting so much low hanging fruit business in its own network, business it intentionally pisses away not because it's infeasible, but because UP just doesn't want to do it. Because it involves hiring people and retaining people and treating people good; it involves track maintenance; it involves owning locomotives and freight cars.