Fill in the blank.

[Anonymous]

This is a tough one. so ill try to make it sweet and simple.
ILL proubly hate myself for even asking this Question.
There are 7 Questions.
Here we go.
Should these types of mergers even happen?
no.1 BNSF&UP.
no.2 NS&CSXT.
no.3 BNSF&NS.
no.4 BNSF&CSXT.
no.5 UP&NS.
no.6 UP&CSXT.....or.....
no.7.........who realy cares?

[Anonymous]

Ah the good old merger mania chatter.

IMHO we won't be seeing any major Class One mergers anytime soon, CSX is having it's share of problems right now, but that doesn't necessarily make it "ripe for the picking."

If anything we see UP having a bunch of trouble all over their network at the moment, wouldn't it be interesting to see the rebirth of SP? [:)]

I seriously think that for the next decade or so we will continue to see the growth of shortline railroads as Class One's slowly try and ditch the branch lines that aren't making them money.

We may even see shortlines start to be come larger and larger as they scoop up the lines the Class Is don't want, perhaps the transition of more Class IIIs into Class IIs.

Who really knows though.

[CShaveRR]

News item:

Today two major American railroads presented to the Surface Transportation Board their application to consolidate operations in a corporate merger.

Both railroads cited the public interest as the reason for their affiliation: "Railroad enthusiasts have been clamoring for us to do something like this for months now," stated one executive. "We're doing it just for them."

Even though approval is years away, locomotives from these two railroads can already be seen on the other company's tracks, particularly at locations where the two lines connect.

There has been an unsubstantiated rumor that freight cars from the two companies have been observed actually coupled to each other.

This merger is not without its detractors, however. "As soon as the ink is dry, some of those same railfans will begin to long for the days when we were two separate companies," comments one high-ranking official.

-30-

[Big_Boy_4005]

There isn't much point to merging eastern or western roads together. The value would come from merging an eastern with a western to give full coast to coast service. Are any mergers coming soon? Who knows. There has been a lot of friendly interaction between certain roads lately.

Maybe the railroads prefer "dating" over "marriage". Beside, if one road was responsible for handeling your freight, and it was late, they wouldn't have anyone else to place the blame on.

If I, as a railfan, was going to play match maker, I would take a geographical approach. I would put BNSF with CSX, leaving UP and NS together. The problem is that might not be a fair fight, as the BNSFCSX would truly cover the country, and the UPNS would have holes. A better business model would pair UP with CSX giving both mega roads good access to 3/4 of the country.

[Willy2]

Well... I have just one answer. I would really like it if the railroads would just stay the way they are now. If all of these mergers that everyone is fearing happen... there will just be one huge railroad someday![soapbox]

Willy