Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/29/2025 1:40:37 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Union Pacific wants to buy Norfolk Southern in a $85 billion deal that would create the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S, and potentially trigger a final wave of rail mergers across the country.
The proposed merger, announced Tuesday, would marry Union Pacific’s vast rail network in the West with Norfolk’s rails that snake across the Eastern United States. The combined railroad would include more than 50,000 miles of track in 43 states with connections to major ports on both coasts.
The nation was first linked by rail in 1869, when a golden railroad spike was driven in Utah to symbolize the connection of East and West Coasts. Yet no single entity has controlled that coast-to-coast passage.
The railroads argue a merger would streamline deliveries of raw materials and goods nationwide by eliminating delays when shipments are handed off between railroads. […]
The nation’s largest rail union, SMART-TD, quickly opposed the merger over concerns of jeopardizing progress that Norfolk Southern has made in safety and labor relations since its disastrous 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The union said that Union Pacific’s record is troubling on safety, and treatment of workers. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Granddaddy was an engineer on the old Seaboard Line railroad.
They missed the first transcontinental railroad opportunity by 156 years.
Wait, what?
The only inheritance I have from my father’s father is his Elgin pocket watch that he used when he worked for the railroad in the early Depression years in OK. My father, who lost his dad when he was 17, kept the watch his whole life, even though it didn’t work. Last year I finally found an old-fashioned watch repairman who specialized in Elgin, and now it ticks loudly in my bedroom.
A UP-NS merger would be the first time a single railroad company connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in the U.S.
The Canadian National is the first transcontinental railroad in North America.
The UP/NS will be the first US railroad to have coast to coast tracks.
I have the pocket watches of both my grandfathers.
One of them needs a key to wind. Guess what I don’t have.
I have my great grandfather’s brass knuckles & blackjack for when he was a conductor for a railroad.
I have a great name for this railroad.
The Taggart Transcontinental Railroad.
This is somewhat like getting all the railroads when playing Monopoly.
I think you’ll find that the Canadian Pacific transcontinental route is even older.
Chances are you can go to a large gun show and you will find a key to buy.
Watch making and gunsmiths seem to go hand in hand.
Who gets the golden spike?
Will hurt competition and make the Shareholders richer...
“A UP-NS merger would be the first time a single railroad company connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in the U.S.”
One of the things that most irritated Richard J Daley of Chicago Was the fact that, in spite of his great power as mayor, he could never get the railroads to combine so that anyone could go, while at one station, from one railroad to another to get across the country. You always had to change stations. I’m 82 and spent the first eighteen years of my life in the Chicago area.
And massive layoffs...
That’s a good idea.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.