Norfolk Southern gains STB approval of D&H acquisition
Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) approved Norfolk Southern's acquisition of approximately 283 miles of rail line in Pennsylvania and New York from the Delaware & Hudson Railway Company, Inc. (D&H).
The lines at issue, known as D&H’s South Lines, consist of approximately 267 miles of the mainline between Sunbury/Kase, Pa., and Schenectady, N.Y., and approximately 15 miles of the running track between Voorheesville Junction and Delanson, N.Y.
In reaching its decision, the board found that NS’s acquisition of the South Lines from D&H is not likely to cause a substantial lessening of competition or create a monopoly or restraint of trade. The board says it found this to be true, even when taking into account D&H’s planned discontinuance of trackage rights that connect to the D&H South Lines, which are the subject of a separate proceeding. STB concluded that any anticompetitive effects are unlikely and, if they were to occur, would be far outweighed by the strong public benefits of the transaction.
Such benefits include allowing NS to provide more reliable, safe and efficient service for shippers and allowing NS and rail transportation generally to provide more effective competition with other modes of transportation, such as trucking and barge. STB issued the approval subject to a number of conditions, including a condition that NS enter into two voluntary commercial agreements with D&H to preserve certain shippers’ access to two carriers (NS and D&H).
