Railroads are currently doing well because they are not regulated. I suppose truckers could use the break, since environmental regulations will hit them a lot harder than the railroads. Teamsters are primarily a truck-based organization. BNSF and other railroads are rallying support against being destroyed from re-regulation by doing dog-and-pony shows at the Capitol.

BNSF already tried to merge with a Canadian road, and was turned down. The most important force behind an east-west merger is the elimination of Chicago as an exchange point. Chicago is a horrible place to put a rail hub, and it only exists because of the arcane practice of splitting revenue for rail shipments by route miles.

Montana is mad because the farmers want free shipments of grain.

The AP is well known for reprinting propaganda pieces put out by companies without doing any research. Many times, the European-based organization will snipe at US industry at the behest of European governments or government-backed firms.