The Surface Transportation Board today proposed a procedural schedule it will follow as part of its review of Union Pacific’s $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern.
The schedule the board is proposing slightly tweaks the schedule that UP and NS outlined in July.
The board would give the Justice Department and Transportation Department 15 additional days to submit their comments on the transcontinental merger. By pushing the deadline back, it would allow both departments to consider comments filed by other railroads, shippers, labor unions, and communities.
The STB also said dates for public hearings, the close of the record, and a date for a final decision and its effective date would remain “to be determined.”
UP (NYSE: UNP) and NS (NYSE: NSC) had asked for the public hearings to be scheduled 300 days after submission of their merger application. The railroads also had sought to have the close of the public record — which then starts a 90-day clock ticking for the board to issue a decision — set to coincide with the end of the public hearings. And they had proposed that the decision become effective 420 days after submission of the application.
The railroads are expected to file the application between Oct. 29 and Jan. 29, but executives have said they are aiming for the earlier part of the three-month window.
Written comments on the STB’s proposed schedule are due by Oct. 16.
“The dates proposed in this decision are subject to change depending on the comments received or other circumstances,” the board said. “Should the Board accept an application in this proceeding, the Board anticipates that it would adopt a procedural schedule in that decision.”
The board said it will address environmental review issues in a subsequent decision.
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