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Fired rail board member sues Trump over removal amid major merger decision

A Surface Transportation Board member who was fired by President Donald Trump last August has filed a lawsuit on Wednesday. He is challenging his dismissal as the Surface Transportation Board prepares to consider a major decision regarding combining railways.

Robert Primus referred to his firing as an "illegal removal". He said that Trump had "failed to provide a single reason for the termination, much less one that satisfied the statutory requirements of inefficiency, negligence of duty or malfeasance at office." Primus asked a U.S. District Judge in Washington, D.C., to reinstate him.

The U.S. Rail regulator is considering a proposed $85 billion merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, the largest U.S. railroad tie-up for decades.

After meeting with Jim Vena, CEO of Union Pacific, in the Oval Office, Trump, who is a Republican, stated that the merger of the rail industry "sounds great to me".

A major rail union SMART-TD said that Primus, before being fired, had "made it clear his opposition to the'merger,' which would have been a corporate takeover combining Union Pacific Railroad with Norfolk Southern Railroad."

Primus was first nominated to fill a board vacancy by Trump in 2020. He was then nominated for a five-year term by Democratic President Joe Biden, and Biden designated him as chairman in 2024.

This is just the latest in a long line of dismissals from independent agencies by the Trump administration. "President Trump removed Robert Primus legally from the Surface Transportation Board. "We look forward to the court affirming this simple fact," White House spokesperson Kush Desai stated.

Trump has dismissed the two Democrats at the Federal Trade Commission as well as the vice-chair of the National Transportation Safety Board and members of National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board.

He also tried to remove Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve Governor and the U.S. Postmaster General.

The announcement in July of a merger between two major U.S. railroad operators shocked a market that was already very concentrated. Under the Biden administration's aggressive antitrust policies, such a proposal was unthinkable.

Union Pacific is the dominant freight rail carrier in Western United States. Norfolk Southern, on the other hand, is the leading carrier in Eastern United States. Together, the two railroads form one of four major U.S. class I railroads along with BNSF Railway, CSX Corp and BNSF Railway.

The White House announced last month that it would nominate Surface Transportation Board member Michelle Schultz to a second term, and Richard Kloster, the head of a private consulting firm in transportation, for an open seat within the agency. (Reporting and editing by Chris Sanders, Aurora Ellis, and David Shepardson)

(source: Reuters)