Two of the largest US railroads, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, announced on Tuesday a plan to combine in a $72 billion deal that would create America’s first transcontinental freight railroad.

Union Pacific, based in Omaha, has over 32,000 employees, and Norfolk Southern, with headquarters in Atlanta, has nearly 20,000. At both railroads, around four-fifths of the work force belongs to ...

It still does. What today is known as the Norfolk Southern Railway serves states to our east. The Union Pacific railroad, as its name suggests, operates in 23 states west of Chicago and New Orleans.