Massive Rail Merger In U.S.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31579, 17 January 1968, Page 15

Massive Rail Merger In U.S.

(N.Z.P.A..Rtut.r—Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 16. The United States Supreme Court today approved the largest merger in American financial history—the marriage of the huge Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroad Companies.

The two companies together have assets of more than SUS6OOOm and railway tracks which extend throughout the entire eastern part of the United States as far west as Chicago and St Louis. Today’s decision, by seven votes to one, ends 20 months of legal delays after initial approval by the Inter-State Commerce Commission. The Court said the new company, to be known as the Pennsylvania-New York Central Transportation Company, must also take over the operations of the bankrupt New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad. The two lines had agreed earlier to lend the New

Haven company SUS2Sm aftei completion of the merger. The new company will control more than 20,000 miles of track. The Pennsylvania and New York Central operate in 14 States and Canada. The proposed merger is expected to save SUSBOm in eight years by combined operations. The Supreme Court today also approved the inclusion of three smaller railways—the Erie Lackawanna, the Delaware and Hudson, and the Boston and Maine—into the Norfolk and Western railroad, if they so desired. The Erie has approved the move, but the other two have not yet reached decisions.