More Competition, More Access, More Accountability for You

To Our Customers,

You are the reason this railroad just posted the strongest quarter in its history, and you are the reason for the filing I am sharing today. Every new addition we put forward was designed with one goal, to make Union Pacific work better for your business, now and for the long term.

Yesterday, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern filed our final supplemental response with the Surface Transportation Board (STB), completing our answers to the Board's requests. That filing backs our merger application with a set of voluntary customer protections that go beyond any prior rail merger.

New Additions That Enhance Competition
The filing adds four new or expanded commitments, each built around you: 

• New Competitive Opportunities. We are significantly expanding Committed Gateway Pricing. This roughly doubles the shipments eligible, from about 134,000 to 258,000 annually, and for the first time includes agricultural and other bulk unit-train customers. It is the functional equivalent of thousands of haulage agreements in a single, enforceable commitment.
• New Service Level Protections. In the unlikely event service slips during the transition, our new Targeted Access Program gives you temporary access to alternative rail service, an added safeguard to keep your freight moving.
• Stronger Regulatory Oversight. A new Rate Alternative Dispute Resolution process lets the STB act quickly if the merger’s benefits are not delivered on time. We expect never to need it, but you deserve the accountability.
• Expanded Customer Protections. For the small number of facilities whose rail options would move from two carriers to one, or three to two, we will provide access to an additional Class I railroad. No rail merger in history has offered this kind of proactive, systemwide protection.

These additions, along with the CN settlement agreement, bring more competition, more access and more accountability than any merger in railroad history.  We did not just meet the Board's bar; we raised it, and you are the one who benefits.

The core case has not changed. Our end-to-end network creates single-line service on more than 10,000 lanes, opens 88,000 new county-to-county lanes, and shifts 2.1 million truckloads a year to rail, saving shippers an estimated $3.5 billion annually. For you, that means faster, more reliable service, lower cost and one accountable partner from origin to destination.

On to the Merits
We have handed our competitors more protections than any railroad merger in history. We gave BNSF and CSX commercial access to facilities deep inside our network, guaranteed an additional Class I option at every affected facility, and backed it all with alternative service and independent oversight. As the proceeding moves deeper into the merits, opponents will finally have to put forward facts, not just rhetoric. When the data is on the table, the benefits of this merger will be confirmed, the same benefits your businesses will feel every day.

Our agreements with CN, and now this supplemental filing, all point in one direction. Each is aimed at strengthening America’s rail network and giving you more competitive options, and that is good for your business and for ours. A more competitive railroad is one that earns new and growing business every day. I am proud of this work, prouder of this team and more excited than ever about what we will build with you next.

Sincerely,

Kenny Rocker
Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales