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Supply & Demand Chain Executive | The UP-NS Merger: How a Coast to Coast Railroad Could Reshape U.S. Supply Chains

January 31, 2026 – Supply & Demand Chain Executive
Close up image of a modern railway track

The proposed $85 billion Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger would create the nation’s first coast‑to‑coast single‑line freight railroad, stitching together more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states and linking roughly 100 U.S. ports.

UP and NS project sweeping gains in network fluidity and competitive positioning, but the deal now sits under intense scrutiny from the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which rejected, without prejudice, the original Dec. 19, 2025 application as incomplete and is requiring a substantially stronger evidentiary showing before the review can move forward.

For supply chain executives, particularly those in procurement, logistics, transportation, and operations management, the merger represents far more than a rail industry milestone. It has meaningful implications for service reliability, routing options, rates, and multimodal planning across manufacturing, retail, energy, agriculture, and port‑centric supply chains.

Click here to read the full article written by Juan Reyes and Sebastian Smelko published in Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

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