Railroads In The 1990s: Mega-Mergers, Conrail’s Split & the STB

Published: September 13, 2026

The 1990s opened with a Class I map the 1980s had already redrawn and closed with one the present tense still uses. Class I miles of road stood at 119,758 in 1990 and 99,250 in 2000—the same Association of American Railroads series that put 164,822 miles on the books in 1980. Ton-miles went the other way, from 1,033,969 million to 1,465,960 million. Burlington Northern and Santa Fe became one holding company on September 22, 1995. Union Pacific took the Chicago & North Western that year and Southern Pacific on September 11, 1996. Congress abolished the Interstate Commerce Commission on December 29, 1995; the Surface Transportation Board opened New Year’s Day. Norfolk Southern and CSX split Conrail on June 1, 1999. Canadian National took the Illinois Central that July.

The 1980s—Staggers, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific–Missouri Pacific–Western Pacific, the Conrail IPO, the merger the ICC stopped—are that decade. The statute itself is Staggers. What follows here is 1990 through 2000: the western combinations the 1980s had left unfinished, an eastern freight railroad divided instead of sold whole, a new federal board in place of the Commission, and a Class I plant that kept shrinking while the ton-miles climbed.

Santa Fe B40-8W 514 at Saunders Arizona October 29 1994

Santa Fe B40-8W 514 at Saunders, Arizona (the railroad called it Cheto), on October 29, 1994. Marty Bernard photo.

On this page: At a glance · The map of 1990 · Burlington Northern and Santa Fe · Union Pacific, the North Western, and Southern Pacific · The Conrail split · Canadian National and the Illinois Central · From the ICC to the STB · Miles down, ton-miles up · Into the 2000s

At a glance

Item	Detail
Class I miles of road, 1990	119,758 (AAR / BTS series; same series as 164,822 in 1980 on the 1980s page)
Class I miles of road, 1995	108,264
Class I miles of road, 2000	99,250
Class I ton-miles, 1990	1,033,969 million
Class I ton-miles, 1995	1,305,688 million
Class I ton-miles, 2000	1,465,960 million
Norfolk Southern Railway	Operating merger, N&W into Southern, December 31, 1990. Holding company was 1982
NAFTA	In force January 1, 1994. North–south freight context, not a statute dump
BN–Santa Fe announced	June 30, 1994
Union Pacific control of C&NW	ICC common-control March 7, 1995, effective April 6. $1.2 billion purchase treated as completed June 24, 1995
BNSF holding company	Consummated September 22, 1995, 8:32 a.m. EDT. ICC 4–0 July 20; written decision August 23
ICC Termination Act	Pub. L. 104-88, signed December 29, 1995. Surface Transportation Board from January 1, 1996
BN and Santa Fe operating merger	December 31, 1996, as Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway
Union Pacific–Southern Pacific	STB 3–0 July 3, 1996, $5.4 billion. Consummated September 11, 1996, 10 a.m. CT
Houston / Texas service crisis	Summer–fall 1997, after the SP integration
CSX / NS Conrail transaction	Agreement June 10, 1997. STB vote June 8, 1998; Decision No. 89 July 23
Conrail Control Date	August 22, 1998
Conrail Split Date / Day One	June 1, 1999. NS about 58 percent of the routes, CSX about 42. Shared Assets in North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit
CN–Illinois Central	STB vote March 25, 1999; written decision May 25. Integration July 1, 1999
Not this decade	BNSF Railway name (January 24, 2005). CN–Wisconsin Central (2001). Buffett / BNSF (2009). PSR as a brand. CPKC. The 2026 Class I map

Class I mileage and ton-miles from Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts, as tabulated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Information compiled September 12, 2026.

The map of 1990

On the last day of 1990 Norfolk Southern became one operating railroad: Southern took the Norfolk & Western and changed its name. The holding company had been June 1, 1982. CSX Transportation had already absorbed the Chessie names. Union Pacific controlled Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific. Conrail was a public company, three years past its IPO. Southern Pacific belonged to Philip Anschutz and Rio Grande Industries. Santa Fe was still Santa Fe. Soo Line was digesting Milwaukee Road. Kansas City Southern was still the north–south independent. Class I mileage was under 120,000. Ton-miles were over a trillion.

That is what the 1980s left on the table. Staggers was ten years old and already a working tool: confidential contracts, faster line sales, an ICC that no longer suspended every increase and had already said no to Santa Fe–Southern Pacific in 1986. Canadian Pacific took the Delaware & Hudson out of Guilford’s bankruptcy in January 1991. Wisconsin Central, spun from Soo in 1987, spent the decade as a Midwestern regional that flirted with the old Class I revenue line. Those company stories stay on their pages. The 1990s assignment was to finish the western map, divide the Northeast, and replace the Commission.

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe

Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe announced a combination on June 30, 1994. Shareholders approved it on February 7, 1995. The ICC voted 4–0 on July 20, 1995 and issued the written decision on August 23. The holding company—Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation—was consummated at 8:32 a.m. EDT on September 22, 1995. The two operating railroads merged on December 31, 1996, as the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. The later short name, BNSF Railway, is January 24, 2005. The company encyclopedia is BNSF. Burlington Northern’s own history is that page; Santa Fe’s is Santa Fe.

Burlington Northern GP35m 2983 and SD40-2 8070 westbound local at Cassville Wisconsin August 24 1991

Burlington Northern GP35m 2983 and SD40-2 8070 westbound with a short local at Cassville, Wisconsin, along the Mississippi River on August 24, 1991. Doug Kroll photo.

Cassville is still Burlington Northern, four years before the announcement: a Mississippi River local on the old Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The Arizona photograph is still Santa Fe, four months after the announcement: a Super Fleet B40-8W in warbonnet paint at a timetable location the railroad called Cheto. The ICC had stopped Santa Fe and Southern Pacific in 1986. This combination was end-to-end enough to pass—Powder River and the Pacific Northwest on one side, Chicago–California and the Southwest on the other—with conditions. The 2009 Berkshire Hathaway purchase is not this decade.

Union Pacific, the North Western, and Southern Pacific

Union Pacific already reached Chicago and the Bay Area from the 1982 control of Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific. The Chicago & North Western was the next piece. The ICC approved common control on March 7, 1995, effective April 6. A cash tender at $35 a share ran in March. The New York Times treated the $1.2 billion purchase as completed on June 24, 1995, after 99.5 percent of the shares; the Commission’s reasonableness ruling was June 23. The North Western encyclopedia is Chicago & North Western. Union Pacific is Union Pacific.

Southern Pacific was the larger unfinished business. Santa Fe Southern Pacific had been denied in 1986; Anschutz had bought SP in 1988. Union Pacific announced the Southern Pacific on August 3, 1995. The new Surface Transportation Board voted 3–0 on July 3, 1996, a $5.4 billion transaction, and issued the written decision on August 6. Control was consummated at 10 a.m. Central Time on September 11, 1996, effective October 1. The SP encyclopedia is Southern Pacific.

The integration did not go quietly. Through the summer and fall of 1997 the Houston and Texas Gulf terminal area seized up—cars lost, crews out of place, chemical and grain shippers filing at the Board. Fred Frailey later called it the mother of all coagulations. Emergency service orders followed. Missouri Pacific, still a paper railroad after 1982, was merged into Union Pacific Railroad on January 1, 1997. The 1996–97 map was yellow paint on more miles than the operating department could digest at once. That is the 1990s fact. Precision Scheduled Railroading is later than that.

The Conrail split

Conrail had been a listed freight railroad since March 26, 1987. Restrictions from the privatization kept another Class I from buying it on the spot. CSX announced an agreement to acquire it on October 15, 1996. Norfolk Southern bid against that agreement. The two eastern companies settled on a division: a Transaction Agreement on June 10, 1997, and a joint application on June 23. The STB voted on June 8, 1998 and issued Decision No. 89 on July 23. Control Date was August 22, 1998. Split Date—Day One, when the allocated routes changed hands—was June 1, 1999.

Norfolk Southern took about 58 percent of Conrail’s routes, including the old New York Central west of Cleveland and much of the Pennsylvania’s former main. CSX took about 42 percent, including the New York Central east of Cleveland and much of the former New York Central / Boston & Albany toward New England. Three Shared Assets Areas—North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit—stayed in a Conrail residual so both buyers could reach the same terminals. The company encyclopedia is Conrail. CSX is CSX; Norfolk Southern is Norfolk Southern.

Four CSX Geeps led by GP40 6592 with empty coal train B875 at Pinto Maryland

Four CSX Geeps, GP40 6592 leading, with empty coal train B875 through Pinto, Maryland, bound for a mine on the former Western Maryland Thomas Sub. Twenty years earlier this train would have been on WM rails here; the abandoned WM right-of-way is at right. April 17, 1994. Wade Massie photo.

Pinto is the 1980s eastern map already at work, five years before anyone divided Conrail. CSX Transportation was running the former Baltimore & Ohio. The Western Maryland had gone into the B&O on May 1, 1983; its Thomas Sub toward the West Virginia mines is the assignment, and the abandoned parallel is in the photograph. The WM encyclopedia is Western Maryland. Train B875 is 1990s CSX coal on someone else’s former railroad. The 1999 split gave CSX and Norfolk Southern the Conrail plant the same way.

Canadian National and the Illinois Central

Canadian National announced the Illinois Central on February 10, 1998, about $2.4 billion. The application went to the STB on July 15 as Finance Docket 33556. The Board voted on March 25, 1999 and issued the written decision on May 25. Integration was July 1, 1999. It was an end-to-end Chicago–New Orleans franchise hung under CN’s existing Chicago access, not a parallel merger. Kansas City Southern argued that IC’s Alliance/Access arrangements made the deal three-handed; the Board did not treat it that way. KCS stayed independent. The IC encyclopedia is Illinois Central. Canadian National is Canadian National. Kansas City Southern is Kansas City Southern.

Hunter Harrison was already running Illinois Central to a schedule in the 1990s. That is a date on this page. The later Precision Scheduled Railroading brand is not. NAFTA had been in force since January 1, 1994; north–south carloads were part of the argument for CN–IC and for KCS’s own Mexican franchise. Wisconsin Central, still independent, would go to CN in 2001. Soo Line remained a Canadian Pacific subsidiary. Those later combinations are the next decade and today.

From the ICC to the STB

The Interstate Commerce Commission had opened in 1887. Staggers had taken it out of most rates in 1980 and left it in mergers, abandonments, and captive-shipper cases. Congress finished the agency in the ICC Termination Act, H.R. 2539, Public Law 104-88, signed December 29, 1995. The Surface Transportation Board opened January 1, 1996. The 180-percent revenue-to-variable-cost test and the market-dominance inquiry came with it. The statute encyclopedia for 1980 remains Staggers. This page is the date the Commission died and the Board heard the rest of the decade’s mergers.

Union Pacific–Southern Pacific was the Board’s first large railroad combination. Conrail and CN–IC followed. The ICC had still been the forum for BN–Santa Fe and UP–North Western. One decade, two agencies, the same Staggers cage. How the STB works in 2026 is the today page.

Miles down, ton-miles up

Class I miles of road fell from 119,758 (1990) to 108,264 (1995) to 99,250 (2000). A large part of the drop is still sales. The AAR counted several hundred non-Class I railroads on the order of 40,000 miles by the mid-1990s. Wisconsin Central, New England Central (the old Central Vermont, 1995), and the rest of the Staggers spinoff crop are short lines and regionals. Stover’s older first-track series on the pre-1960 decade pages is a different column. The today page uses 164,822 (1980) and 136,650 (2020) for a national-network snapshot. Direction is the same: a smaller Class I plant carrying more freight.

Class I ton-miles rose from 1,033,969 million in 1990 to 1,305,688 million in 1995 to 1,465,960 million in 2000. Powder River coal, stack trains, and contract grain filled longer consists. AC traction arrived as a working locomotive, not a test: Burlington Northern’s SD70MACs in 1993, GE’s AC4400CW behind them. Santa Fe’s Super Fleet Dash 8s, the Arizona photograph, were the wide-cab generation already on the point. That hardware story is diesel locomotives.

Amtrak F40PH 283 with train 210 at Memphis New York August 13 1993

Amtrak F40PH 283 with train 210 at Memphis, New York, on August 13, 1993. Wade Massie photo.

Memphis is a hamlet west of Syracuse on the Empire Corridor, not the Tennessee city. W. Graham Claytor Jr.’s Amtrak presidency ran through 1993. Metrolink opened in Southern California on October 26, 1992. Amtrak ordered the Acela trainsets in 1996; first revenue service is December 11, 2000. The passenger encyclopedias are Amtrak and commuter rail.

Into the 2000s

By 2000 the western duopoly was in place: BNSF and a Union Pacific that now included the North Western and Southern Pacific. CSX and Norfolk Southern had divided Conrail. Canadian National had the Illinois Central. The ICC was gone. Class I mileage was under 100,000. Ton-miles were approaching a trillion and a half. Kansas City Southern was still independent. Wisconsin Central was still independent. Soo was still Canadian Pacific.

Canadian National and Wisconsin Central (2001), the BNSF Railway name (January 24, 2005), Berkshire Hathaway’s purchase of BNSF (2009), Precision Scheduled Railroading as a brand, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, and the pending Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern case are later than this page. The present-tense industry—who the Class Is are, how the STB works, what the 2026 map looks like—is railroads of today. The 1990s left them two western systems, two eastern systems, a Canadian north–south on the Illinois Central, a federal board instead of the Commission, and a short-line industry still standing on the miles the Class Is no longer wanted.

Sources

Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts, Class I miles of road and ton-miles, as tabulated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (119,758 / 1,033,969 million in 1990; 108,264 / 1,305,688 million in 1995; 99,250 / 1,465,960 million in 2000)
Burlington Northern–Santa Fe: announced June 30, 1994; ICC Finance Docket 32549, vote July 20, 1995 (4–0), written decision August 23, 1995; holding-company consummation September 22, 1995, 8:32 a.m. EDT; operating railroads merged December 31, 1996. Live American-Rails BNSF and Burlington Northern pages
Union Pacific–Chicago & North Western: ICC common-control March 7, 1995, effective April 6; $35-a-share tender; New York Times, June 24, 1995 ($1.2 billion, 99.5 percent of shares); ICC reasonableness ruling June 23, 1995
Union Pacific–Southern Pacific: announced August 3, 1995; STB vote July 3, 1996 (3–0), $5.4 billion, written decision August 6; consummated September 11, 1996, 10 a.m. CT, effective October 1, 1996. Houston / Texas Gulf service crisis, summer–fall 1997 (Fred W. Frailey, Trains)
Missouri Pacific merged into Union Pacific Railroad, January 1, 1997
ICC Termination Act, H.R. 2539, Pub. L. 104-88, signed December 29, 1995; Surface Transportation Board from January 1, 1996
CSX / Norfolk Southern–Conrail: CSX agreement announced October 15, 1996; Transaction Agreement June 10, 1997; joint application June 23, 1997; STB vote June 8, 1998; Decision No. 89 July 23, 1998; Control Date August 22, 1998; Split Date / Day One June 1, 1999. NS about 58 percent of routes, CSX about 42; Shared Assets Areas North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, Detroit
Canadian National–Illinois Central: announced February 10, 1998, about $2.4 billion (Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, February 11, 1998); STB Finance Docket 33556, application July 15, 1998; vote March 25, 1999; written decision May 25, 1999; integration July 1, 1999. Railway Gazette effective date June 24, 1999
North American Free Trade Agreement, in force January 1, 1994. Canadian Pacific purchase of Delaware & Hudson, January 1991. Metrolink, October 26, 1992. Western Maryland into Baltimore & Ohio, May 1, 1983
Norfolk Southern operating merger, December 31, 1990 (holding company June 1, 1982), on the 1980s page. Short-line mileage order of magnitude from the Staggers rewrite (AAR / mid-1990s non-Class I count)

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