UP CEO: BNSF wrong on intermodal lanes closure after merger

A back-and-forth exchange this week between the CEOs of Union Pacific and BNSF Railway over potential impacts of a UP-Norfolk Southern merger has seen UP CEO Jim Vena refuting BNSF’s claim that his railroad would eliminate 300 intermodal lanes if the merger is approved, and BNSF CEO Katie Farmer saying Vena’s statement is welcome.

The 300-lane figure is included in a one-page BNSF position paper on the proposed merger, headlined “Costly, Unnecessary, Anti-Competitive and Bad for the U.S. Economy.” After making the claim that 300 intermodal lanes would be closed, it states, “After the last major round of mergers, 90 intermodal facilities closed, resulting in several hundred fewer intermodal lane options and communities permanently losing their intermodal access.”

Vena, in a presentation Tuesday to the Baird 2025 Global Industrial Conference, said he had the BNSF document sitting in his bathroom “next to the sink with the toothpaste.

“I go, ‘Really?’ Why would we shut off 300 lanes?” Vena said, according to a transcript. “First of all, we do not have 300 lanes in intermodal. There are not that many lanes. I said to Kenny [Rocker, UP executive vice president, marketing and sales], ‘are you hiding 290 lanes from me that I do not understand? They said we are going to shut down that many.’ I laugh.