What Does an $85B Railroad Merger Have To Do with Montana?

Last month, the host of the “Montana Talks” morning radio show spent a 10-minute segment interviewing a BNSF Railway official about the company’s opposition to a proposed merger between two rival railroads. To even the most well-informed listener, the segment may have been the first time they heard about the plan to combine the railroads, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, into a coast-to-coast behemoth spanning more than 50,000 miles of track and 43 states. If approved by federal regulators, it would be the largest railroad in America by tens of thousands of miles.

The proposed merger has dr...