The U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) said it will review Norfolk Southern Corporation and Norfolk Southern Railway Company’s (NS) bid to acquire Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line (NPBL) Railroad Company as a “significant” transaction.
NPBL is a class III carrier in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Va, operating some 36 miles of rail line and approximately 27 miles of trackage rights over NS track from Chesapeake to Norfolk. The trackage rights facilitate NPBL’s access to the Norfolk International Terminal, officials said, one of two primary container terminals at the Port of Virginia. NS and CSX Transportation (CSXT) have owned NPBL since 1982, but a 2022 Board decision found that the agency did not authorize NS’s control of NPBL in 1982.
However, in February of this year, NS filed an application for a minor transaction. Based on the current record, the STB has questions regarding CSXT’s access to the Norfolk terminal. It was unable to conclude that the transaction would not have any anticompetitive effects or that any anticompetitive effect would be outweighed by the transaction’s contribution to the public interest in meeting significant transportation needs, something required to be considered a minor transaction. The STB then classified the transaction as a significant one.
The STB said it is treating the NS submission as the “prefiling notification,” and directing the company to files a supplement to correct the application. Additionally, the board asked the company to update its procedural schedule in accordance with regulations for significant transactions. The Board said it would waive certain application requirements while strengthening the data and information required for a fair and thorough review of the acquisition’s competition-related effects.
The revised procedural schedule is due by March 21, while the application additions are due between April 14 and June 14, 2025.