The Union Pacific Railroad announced yesterday that it will purchase Norfolk Southern Corporation, forming the first truly transcontinental railroad in the United States. The $85 Billion deal will be subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be complete by 2027.
Effects on the local community would include a stock swap and/or buyout of shares held by retirees of Norfolk Southern and its predecessor Southern Railway. Initial reports place UP’s offer to NS shareholders at $320 per share. Local emergency responders will eventually have a new company to work with in the event of accidents around the rail line through our area, the same for government agencies working with roadways and construction projects near the line.
The possibility of better rail service to industrial sites will be a boon to economic development as well. Whereas Norfolk Southern beginning in the 1980s actively reduced the number of local customers and spur lines in favor of through traffic, Union Pacific is actively recruiting local business for its rail network. This would mean a better working relationship with industries along the line, as the railroad seeks new carloads of freight to haul. UP said in a press release this week that it had added 160 customers to its rail network, and has about 400 projects in its pipeline. The opportunity to ship manufactured goods, timber, and coal from our area could have significant long-term positive effects on the local economy.
The railroad passing through the area originates at Norala Junction near Muscle Shoals in Colbert County, and runs through Russellville, Phil Campbell, Bear Creek, Haleyville, Delmar, Lynn, Nauvoo, and Jasper before terminating at Parrish in Walker County.
Originally constructed as the Sheffield & Birmingham Railroad in 1887, the railroad went through two bankruptcies and two name changes by 1895 when it became the Northern Alabama Railway. Though it was taken over by the Southern Railway System in 1899 and completely absorbed in 1939, the rail line has continued to be called the Northern Alabama or NA Division to this day.
The Norfolk Southern Corporation was formed in 1982 by the merger of Southern Railway with the Norfolk & Western Railway of Virginia. Operations have been handled out of Roanoke since that time. Southern Railway was completely absorbed by NS in 1994, about the same time the company purchased and abandoned the Illinois Central Railroad’s Alabama Division.
The Illinois Central built its line from Corinth, Mississippi to Haleyville in 1908, and the junction of the two railroads was largely responsible for the growth of the city in the early 20th Century. Many of our older citizens can easily recall the boom of the railroad industry, which began its decline in the 1950s and ended with the IC ceasing operations in the late 1980s.
1996 marked the symbolic end of the IC railroad, when Norfolk Southern demolished the landmark Brush Creek Trestle between Haleyville and Hackleburg, said to be the tallest railroad bridge east of the Rocky Mountains. The rest of the Illinois Central System from Chicago to New Orleans was purchased by Canadian National in the late 1990s.
Now, our little Northern Alabama line will become a small part of America’s largest railroad company, and the first to ever reach both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Article by Evan Tidwell, Image courtesy Union Pacific