Donald Trump knows a good deal when he sees one. He also knows that a good deal can fail if the rules are stacked against it. That is the reality facing America’s freight rail system today. The proposed Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern merger has the potential to be one of the most significant transportation upgrades in decades. It could create a true coast-to-coast freight corridor, help relieve bottlenecks, and make American rail more competitive in a world where efficiency is everything.
This is private investment, not a taxpayer-funded boondoggle. It is the type of bold infrastructure improvement that belongs alongside President Trump’s vision for rebuilding aviation, ports, and shipbuilding. But if it is forced to operate under the Federal Railroad Administration’s outdated, labor-driven rules, the promise will be crippled before the first train leaves the yard.
The FRA’s mission is supposed to be safety. Under Joe Biden and his handpicked administrator, Amit Bose, the agency has become something else entirely. It now serves as a political ally of Big Labor, defending decades-old practices and blocking proven technologies that would make rail safer and more efficient. This is not about protecting working people. It is about protecting the political power of union leadership, even when that protection comes at the expense of modernization, competitiveness, and genuine safety improvements.
The crew-size mandate is one of the clearest examples of this problem. The rule requires at least two crew members in the locomotive of every train, regardless of the route, the type of cargo, or the technology on board. It is not supported by modern safety data. It exists because rail unions have lobbied for it for years. Union leaders call it “common sense,” but the FRA’s own evidence does not show that two-person crews improve safety in every case. What the rule does guarantee is a fixed number of union jobs on every train, whether they are needed or not. It freezes old work rules in place, prevents railroads from adapting staffing to risk and technology, and discourages the adoption of safety systems that could allow crews to be used where they are most effective.
The mandate also sends the wrong signal to investors. If staffing cannot be adjusted to fit new technology, why spend millions upgrading to that technology? The result is a cycle where innovation is delayed, efficiency gains are lost, and the political status quo wins out over real progress. This is not safety policy. It is a political giveaway to union bosses that undermines the long-term health of the industry and the economy.
The same resistance shows up in the FRA’s treatment of Automated Track Inspection. ATI is not an untested experiment. It has been in use for more than thirty years. Mounted on locomotives or railcars, ATI uses lasers and high-speed cameras to detect track defects that cannot be seen by the naked eye. It does this while trains are moving at full speed, covering far more ground than traditional walking inspections.
The results speak for themselves. In trials, ATI found hundreds of times more defects than manual inspections. It reduced dangerous track problems by more than ninety percent. It allowed inspectors to focus their attention where it was most needed and kept them out of dangerous conditions. The railroads are not trying to replace workers with machines. They are trying to give human inspectors the best possible tools so that safety is improved across the board.
Yet the FRA continues to cling to inspection rules written in 1971. That was a time before modern sensors, high-speed data, and predictive maintenance technology. Instead of embracing ATI as a complement to human inspectors, the agency has blocked or delayed its wider use. This is not protecting safety. It is protecting outdated processes for political reasons.
If we are serious about making America great again, we need a freight rail network that is efficient, modern, resilient, and safe. We need one that is able to compete with increasingly automated trucking fleets and foreign competitors that are not bound by Washington’s political deals. Just as Trump has pushed to modernize aviation and rebuild maritime infrastructure, freight rail deserves the same forward-looking approach.
That means clearing away bureaucratic barriers. It means replacing rigid, labor-driven mandates with performance-based safety standards. It means encouraging the private sector to invest in better technology, faster service, and stronger safety systems. This is the difference between progress and protectionism, and right now Biden’s FRA is taking the wrong side.
Government should not be tipping the scales to protect political allies. It should be clearing the way for innovation, competition, and economic growth. The merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern has the potential to be part of a historic transformation of our transportation network. But that will only happen if Washington stops protecting the status quo and starts enabling progress.
Ohioans remember the East Palestine derailment. We know what happens when safety systems fail and accountability is lacking. But doubling down on inefficiency is not the answer. Trust is built when companies are held to high standards and given the tools to meet them. It is destroyed when politics dictates policy and progress is sacrificed to preserve power.
A coast-to-coast rail network should be more than a corporate headline. It should be a backbone for American growth, connecting farms to ports, factories to markets, and workers to opportunity. That will only happen if the FRA is led by people who understand that safety and innovation are not in conflict. The right leadership will demand results and embrace the tools that can deliver them. The wrong leadership will keep us tied to the past while the rest of the world moves forward.
Biden’s Big Labor giveaways have left America’s trains running on rules from another century. It is time to modernize those rules, clear the tracks, and let the merger and the country move full speed ahead.
Ken Blackwell is President of the Council for National Policy and Chairman of the Conservative Action Project.
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