Railroads In The 2020s: CPKC, East Palestine & the UP–NS Case

Last revised: September 14, 2026

The 2020s opened with seven Class I names and a pandemic, and by 2026 they were six names and a transcontinental case at the Surface Transportation Board. Class I miles of road stood at 91,773 in 2020. Ton-miles that year were 1,439,814 million, the COVID trough after the 2014 peak. Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern became Canadian Pacific Kansas City on April 14, 2023. Norfolk Southern train 32N derailed at East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3, 2023. Union Pacific agreed to buy Norfolk Southern on July 29, 2025, about $85 billion. As of September 2026 the Board has not decided it. Precision Scheduled Railroading as everyday practice, and the 2026 Class I snapshot, stay on railroads of today.

What follows here is 2020 through 2026: the traffic crash, the one completed Class I combination, a hazmat wreck that put the industry in front of Congress, a New England regional folded into CSX, a long-distance Amtrak name reused on Sand Patch, and a merger application that would be the first judged under the Board’s 2001 major-merger rules.

Amtrak ALC-42 368 with Floridian train 42 on Sand Patch at Foley Pennsylvania October 6 2025

Amtrak ALC-42 368 with train 42, the Floridian, on Sand Patch at Foley, Pennsylvania, on October 6, 2025. Wade Massie photo.

On this page: At a glance · The map of 2020 · Canadian Pacific Kansas City · CSX and Pan Am · East Palestine · Coal, run-throughs, heritage paint · The Floridian · The UP–NS case

At a glance

Item	Detail
Class I miles of road, 2020	91,773 (AAR / BTS series; same series as 95,573 in 2010 on the 2010s page)
Class I ton-miles, 2020	1,439,814 million
Class I ton-miles, 2021	1,533,869 million (recovery off the COVID floor)
Class I names, January 2020	Seven: BNSF, UP, CSX, NS, CN, CP, KCS
Class I names after April 14, 2023	Six. KCS into CPKC. Snapshot on today and Class I
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act	Signed November 15, 2021. Rail funding as a date, not a statute dump
CSX control of Pan Am	Announced November 2020. STB April 14, 2022. Closed June 1, 2022
CP–KCS announced	March 21, 2021. CN competing bid; STB rejected CN’s voting trust August 31, 2021
CPKC combination day	April 14, 2023. STB final approval March 15, 2023. Voting-trust close December 14, 2021
East Palestine, Ohio	NS train 32N, February 3, 2023, 8:54 p.m. NTSB RRD23MR005
CSX Chessie heritage 1973	Unveiled June 2023, Waycross. Date here; heritage overview on fallen flags
Amtrak Floridian	First trip November 10, 2024. Capitol Limited and Silver Star combined. Temporary, East River Tunnels
UP–NS announced	July 29, 2025, about $85 billion. Application December 19, 2025. STB accepted May 28, 2026. Pending as of September 2026
Not this page	PSR as 2026 current practice. How the STB works. The 2026 Class I map as a snapshot

Class I mileage and ton-miles from Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts. Information compiled September 14, 2026.

The map of 2020

January 2020 still had seven Class I freights: BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Kansas City Southern. PTC was on the last FRA alternative schedules, due December 31, 2020. Then the pandemic hit. Class I ton-miles fell to 1,439,814 million, the lowest in years. Miles of road were 91,773. Crews were furloughed, then scarce when traffic came back in 2021. That service squeeze—not a new merger—is how the decade started.

The 2010s left them Harrison’s operating gospel, a private BNSF, and coal no longer the growth commodity. Company encyclopedias: BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Kansas City Southern. President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on November 15, 2021. Passenger and freight both took money from it. The statute is not this page.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City

Canadian Pacific announced Kansas City Southern on March 21, 2021. Canadian National bid higher. The Surface Transportation Board rejected CN’s voting-trust plan on August 31, 2021—the same 2001 merger-rule world that had sat unused on major Class I combinations since the freeze. CP closed KCS into a voting trust on December 14, 2021. The Board approved the combination on March 15, 2023. On April 14, 2023 the railroad became Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the first single-line freight franchise linking Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Headquarters stayed in Calgary. KCS ceased as a separate Class I. The company encyclopedia is CPKC.

That is the one completed Class I combination of the decade. It is north–south, not Atlantic–Pacific. The 2001 rules still had not been used on a transcontinental U.S. pair. That case is later on this page.

CSX and Pan Am

CSX announced Pan Am Railways in November 2020: the Guilford/Pan Am New England regional, about 1,200 miles, Maine to the Hudson. The Board treated it as a significant transaction, approved it on April 14, 2022, and CSX closed on June 1, 2022. Genesee & Wyoming took the former Boston & Maine west of Ayer as the Berkshire & Eastern. Timothy Mellon’s 1980s regional is a date on the 1980s page. The 2022 closing is this decade. It is not a second CSX encyclopedia.

East Palestine

On February 3, 2023, at 8:54 p.m., eastbound Norfolk Southern train 32N derailed 38 cars at milepost 49.5 on the Fort Wayne Line in East Palestine, Ohio. Eleven of the derailed cars held hazardous materials. A fire followed. On February 6 responders vented and burned vinyl chloride from tank cars. The National Transportation Safety Board’s probable cause was a failed L1 bearing on the 23rd car that overheated and let the axle separate (RRD23MR005). No one died in the derailment. The town, Congress, the FRA, and the Board spent the next two years on hot-bearing detectors, tank-car standards, and crew size. This page is the date. It is not a second accident encyclopedia. Norfolk Southern is Norfolk Southern.

Coal, run-throughs, heritage paint

Coal did not vanish. It shrank, and it still shows up on branches that look like the 1990s. On November 15, 2023 a CSX empty hopper extra came out of the woods on the Coleman Branch at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, bound for Corsa’s Cambria preparation plant at the end of the stub. On February 13, 2026 BNSF ES44AC 5900 led a CSX coal train through Holland Township, Michigan—foreign power on someone else’s railroad, the 2020s version of the shared eastern map. Intermodal and chemicals still pay more of the bills than they did in 2008. 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.

CSX AC4400CWs led by 262 with empty hoppers on the Coleman Branch at Shanksville Pennsylvania November 15 2023

A pair of CSX AC4400CWs, led by 262, with an empty hopper train out of the woods and across Pennsylvania Route 1001 on the Coleman Branch at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on November 15, 2023. The train’s destination, Corsa’s Cambria Preparation Plant, is just ahead at the end of the branch. Wade Massie photo.

BNSF ES44AC 5900 leading a CSX coal train northbound in Holland Township Michigan February 13 2026

BNSF ES44AC 5900 leads a CSX coal train northbound at 136th Avenue and Bingham Street in Holland Township, Michigan, on February 13, 2026. Rick Burn photo.

CSX, a decade after Harrison, put predecessor paint back on Evolution-series units. ES44AC-H 1973, the Chessie System heritage locomotive, came out of Waycross in June 2023—the cat on a GEVO, numbered for the holding-company year. Norfolk Southern’s 2012 heritage fleet is the 2010s. This one is CSX catching up. The heritage overview is fallen flags. The coal extra at Martinsburg in December 2025 is still C315 for Cross, South Carolina, at 1 a.m.

CSX Chessie System heritage unit 1973 leading eastbound coal C315 at Martinsburg West Virginia December 21 2025

CSX ES44AC-H 1973, the Chessie System heritage unit, leads eastbound coal train C315 through Martinsburg, West Virginia, on its way to Cross, South Carolina, just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, December 21, 2025. Jon Wright photo.

The Floridian

Amtrak combined the Capitol Limited and the Silver Star as the Floridian on November 10, 2024: Chicago–Washington on the old Capitol route, then Washington–Miami on the Star, daily, single-level Viewliner and Amfleet cars, trains 40 and 41 at the start. The railroad called it temporary—East River Tunnel work in New York and a Superliner shortage out west. The 1971–79 Chicago–Florida Floridian is that train, not this combination. The Foley photograph is train 42 on Sand Patch in October 2025, an ALC-42 Charger on the former B&O west end the Capitol used to own. Siemens ALC-42s are the long-distance diesel of the decade. Amtrak as a company is Amtrak.

The UP–NS case

On July 29, 2025 Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced an agreement: UP would acquire NS in cash and stock, about $85 billion, a combined enterprise they put above $250 billion, on the order of 50,000 route-miles in 43 states. Shareholders of both companies approved it in November 2025. The railroads filed the application on December 19, 2025. The Board accepted it on May 28, 2026, and asked for more information. The companies have talked about an early-2027 close. As of September 2026 the case is still open. It would be the first major two-Class-I combination heard under the 2001 rules. It would be the first single-company Atlantic–Pacific freight railroad in the United States.

Sources

Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts, Class I miles of road and ton-miles (91,773 / 1,439,814 million in 2020; 1,533,869 million in 2021)
Canadian Pacific–Kansas City Southern: announced March 21, 2021; STB rejected CN voting trust August 31, 2021; CP voting-trust close December 14, 2021; STB approval March 15, 2023; CPKC combination April 14, 2023. Live American-Rails CPKC and Class I pages
CSX–Pan Am Railways: announced November 2020; STB April 14, 2022; closed June 1, 2022 (CSX news release; Railway Age)
NTSB investigation RRD23MR005; FRA HQ-2023-1813. Norfolk Southern train 32N, East Palestine, Ohio, February 3, 2023, 8:54 p.m. EST
Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern: announced July 29, 2025, about $85 billion (UP/NS joint release; AP). Application December 19, 2025. STB accepted May 28, 2026. Pending as of September 2026; companies targeting early 2027
Amtrak Floridian: announced September 23, 2024; first trip November 10, 2024 (Amtrak media). Capitol Limited and Silver Star combined. 1971–79 Floridian on its own page
CSX ES44AC-H 1973, Chessie System heritage, Waycross, June 2023 (CSX; Trains, June 10, 2023). Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed November 15, 2021
Live American-Rails company, named-train, and today pages as linked above

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