Sen. Schumer sounds alarm on impending Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern railroad merger

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Dec 7, 2025

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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., spoke out Sunday against the massive merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern that could be headed for approval from President Trump’s administration.

The New York Democrat has railed against the freight railroad merger since it was first announced in late July, warning it could hurt competition and drive up prices.

“President Trump has been conducting an unprecedented reshaping of the federal government that aims to give preferred corporations and industries remarkable powers and advantage, and now this fact pattern applies to the freight rail industry,” Schumer said Sunday.

Despite opposition from Schumer and other groups, the proposed $85 billion merger of two of America’s four major freight rail companies appears to be on track.

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern shareholders both voted last month to approve the deal and Trump has signaled his support as well.

Back in October, Trump fired a member of the Surface Transportation Board, which must approve the deal. Robert Primus, a Democratic appointee likely to oppose the deal, has contested his firing. He’d been on the board since 2001.

“If approved by the feds, the deal would cut down the industry from four major players to just three, pushing us even further down the road of dangerous consolidation and monopoly power,” Schumer said. “Even worse, the costs of everything from food, via agriculture shipments, to other goods dependent on a competitive supply chain, risk going much, much higher.”

However, the Trump administration has been much more accepting of massive mergers than the previous administration under Joe Biden. Trump recently approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance to create a massive entertainment company.

The humongous rail merger would be the largest U.S. railroad acquisition in history, and the companies recently said they hope to close the deal as soon as Dec. 16. Schumer, however, is hoping to put the deal under greater scrutiny in Congress.

“If President Trump rubber-stamps another merger that hands over critical infrastructure to a corporate cartel, he’ll prove once again that he’s not on the side of working Americans,” Schumer said.

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