The Surface Transportation Board and FRA review merger applications from the perspective of potential impact on shippers and system safety respectively. Neither agency would take a position on a prospective merger prior to it being formally proposed but the common thought is that the next round if mergers, if / when they occur would be some formidable some obstacles in the form of required concessions. Looking at the “Big 4” from a marketing perspective the eastern roads share traffic with both major western roads and visa-versa. Let’s take a hypothetical example where UP and CSX chose to merge but NS and BNSF didn’t. NS, now competing with CSX/UP would perhaps tend to favor BNSF rather than the newly-merged road making current traffic patterns such as the Meridian Speedway no longer as attractive.