Union Pacific

On July 1, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized construction of the nation’s first transcontinental railroad network. Union Pacific marks that day as its founding and calls Lincoln its founder.⁠[1]

The Central Pacific broke ground in Sacramento in January 1863, and Union Pacific followed in December of that year.⁠[2]

On May 10, 1869, the golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, where Union Pacific’s track met the Central Pacific’s, completing the transcontinental railroad.⁠[3]

Crédit Mobilier of America, a construction company formed by Thomas C. Durant and others, received Union Pacific contracts. Congressional investigations in the early 1870s showed its backers siphoned off Union Pacific capital and bribed members of Congress with company stock.⁠[4]

In 1872 Union Pacific opened the first permanent bridge across the Missouri River, between Omaha and Council Bluffs.⁠[5]

Union Pacific fell into bankruptcy in 1893 and in 1897 was sold for $110 million to a group of investors that included E.H. Harriman, then president of the Illinois Central. In 1901 it bought 38% of Southern Pacific stock and took control of that railroad. In 1913 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Union Pacific to sell its 46% stake in Southern Pacific.⁠[6]

In 1941 the Big Boy No. 4014 steam locomotive entered service on Union Pacific lines, and diesel power was introduced for freight.⁠[5]

Union Pacific Corporation was incorporated in Utah in 1969 as a holding company, with Union Pacific Railroad as an operating company.⁠[7][5]

Union Pacific merged with the Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific in 1982, acquired the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad in 1988 and the Chicago & North Western in 1995, and completed its merger with the Southern Pacific in 1996.⁠[3]

Union Pacific paid $4 billion to rejoin the Southern Pacific. The combination created the largest railroad in the United States, with 36,000 miles of track in 23 states.⁠[4]

In 1997 the railroad acquired an ownership interest in a consortium granted a 50-year concession to operate rail lines in Mexico.⁠[8]

Seven derailments from 1992 to 1998 spilled fuel and hazardous substances into Colorado and Utah waterways, and in 1997 the United States sued the predecessor railroads under the Clean Water Act. In a June 8, 2000 settlement, Union Pacific Railroad agreed to an $800,000 fine and measures such as fuel tank standards for new locomotives and rockfall mitigation.⁠[9]

In November 2003, Union Pacific sold its entire trucking interest through an underwritten initial public offering of Overnite Corporation common stock.⁠[7]

James R. Young became president and chief executive officer of Union Pacific Corporation effective January 1, 2006, after Richard K. Davidson, who had been chairman, president and CEO.⁠[8]

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Union Pacific in September 2019, alleging it refused to let a former custodian with a brain tumor return to work without an individualized assessment. In June 2020 the company agreed to pay $260,000 under a two-year consent decree and to train certain Chicago employees on the ADA. Union Pacific denied the allegations.⁠[10]

Soroban Capital, a hedge fund with about a $1.6 billion stake, called for CEO Lance Fritz to be replaced, saying its ask was to “install new leadership who can get the trains to operate safely and on time.” Union Pacific then said it expected to name a new CEO in 2023.⁠[11]

On July 26, 2023, Union Pacific named Jim Vena CEO effective August 14, succeeding Lance Fritz. Beth Whited became president and Mike McCarthy chairman. Vena spent over four decades at Canadian National, rising from brakeman to chief operating officer, and was Union Pacific’s COO from 2019 to 2021.⁠[12]

On July 29, 2025, Union Pacific agreed to acquire Norfolk Southern for 1.0 Union Pacific share plus $88.82 in cash per share, an implied enterprise value of $85 billion. The combined network would span over 50,000 route miles in 43 states, led by Vena from Omaha, with closing targeted by early 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.⁠[13]

On November 14, 2025, 99.5% of votes cast by Union Pacific shareholders approved issuing new shares for the merger. Vena called it an important milestone “on our path to building America’s first coast-to-coast railroad.”⁠[14]

Union Pacific Railroad has 32,889 route miles. Freight revenues were $23.2 billion in 2025: bulk 33%, industrial 37%, premium 30%. Employees averaged 29,287, most of them union members.⁠[15]

The companies filed their major merger application with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) on December 19, 2025. On January 16, 2026, the board unanimously found it incomplete, lacking required future market share projections and parts of the merger agreement, and rejected it without prejudice to refiling.⁠[16]

On April 30, 2026, the companies resubmitted a revised merger application to the STB. BNSF Railway, CPKC and the American Farm Bureau Federation raised objections over competition, costs and service reliability, while the rail union SMART-TD reached an agreement with Union Pacific and supported the merger.⁠[17]

The revised filing added support for the claim that the deal would remove 2 million truckloads from U.S. roads and save $3.5 billion a year, and included the full merger agreement.⁠[18]

The STB accepted the revised application on May 28, 2026, but placed the proceeding in abeyance pending supplemental information, which the companies filed on July 7 and July 27. On August 18, the board resumed the proceeding and adopted a procedural schedule, noting that this was not a ruling on the merits.⁠[19]

Under the schedule, comments and opposition are due November 18, 2026, the applicants’ responses February 16, 2027, and final briefs May 28, 2027. The board intends to issue its final decision within 90 days after the evidentiary record closes.⁠[20]

In 2025 Union Pacific had operating revenue of $24.5 billion (2024: $24.25 billion), net income of $7.1 billion (2024: $6.7 billion), diluted EPS of $11.98 and an operating ratio of 59.8%. Vena called it “a record-breaking year.”⁠[21]

In the third quarter of 2026, operating revenue rose 15% to $7.2 billion and net income rose 16% to $2.1 billion. Vena said the company looked forward to the next steps of the STB’s merger review.⁠[22]