STB Orders Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern to Publicly Disclose Employee-Impact Data in Merger Case

The Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency that oversees railroad mergers, has ordered Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to make public previously nonpublic employee-impact data in their pending merger case, opening a more detailed picture of projected job changes before the next major filing deadline.

In a decision announced July 22, the board said certain employee exhibits filed with the companies’ revised merger application must be redesignated as public. According to the STB press release, For Release 07/22/2026, No. 26-18, the material shows how the proposed merger would affect railroad workers in craft and management roles. “These exhibits provide detailed information on how the proposed merger would affect craft and management employees of UP and NS, including numbers of positions that would be abolished, created, or designated as transferred because of the proposed merger, and the job transfer locations for certain positions.”

That matters because the exhibits appear to offer the clearest public accounting so far of the merger’s projected effects on jobs, including potential eliminations, new positions, transfers and where some transferred jobs would go. For workers, unions, shippers, communities and other participants in the case, the order gives access to information that could shape comments and other filings in the proceeding.

The board said several labor unions filed a joint motion on July 2 asking that the exhibits be made public, and it granted that request. The STB said the information “has been publicly disclosed in prior Board proceedings and does not appear to be commercially or competitively sensitive.”

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern must file the redesignated public exhibits by July 27 in the case, formally titled Union Pacific Corporation and Union Pacific Railroad Company—Control—Norfolk Southern Corporation and Norfolk Southern Railway Company, Docket No. FD 36873.

The transparency order comes as the merger review is already in a procedural holding pattern. On May 28, the STB accepted the companies’ revised application for consideration but placed the proceeding in abeyance while requiring supplemental information from the applicants by July 27. The board said at the time that the abeyance did not affect discovery, allowing information-gathering in the case to continue even as the broader review paused.

The proposed combination is classified by the STB as a major transaction, a designation that triggers an extensive review process. The board has also said an Environmental Impact Statement will be prepared, underscoring the scope of the case beyond the core competition and service questions raised by a major rail merger.

The companies first filed their merger application on Dec. 19, 2025, but the STB rejected it without prejudice on Jan. 16, 2026, as incomplete. They submitted a revised application on April 30.

In its latest release, the board framed the disclosure order as part of a broader effort to keep the case accessible while it considers additional filings from the railroads. The STB said it is “committed to ensuring that its proceedings remain open to meaningful participation by all interested persons,” and added that the applicants may address participation concerns in their supplemental responses due July 27.