Coming soon to Midtown: A Union Pacific building?
If the proposed merger of Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific is approved by federal regulators, the nearly half-century-old Norfolk Southern brand will disappear — as many other railroad brands before it.
But the railroad company has no plans to leave its gleaming office building in Midtown, CEO Mark George told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview Tuesday.
The glass tower overlooking Georgia Tech and the Downtown Connector just might get the new company’s name.
“We don’t have any plans for a change right now,” he said of the location. “It’s a great building.”
The company is free to sell its 650 W. Peachtree St. headquarters building starting this year, according to a past economic development agreement with Georgia and Atlanta.
Last summer, Omaha-based Union Pacific announced plans to acquire Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern and create the country’s first transcontinental railroad company, headquartered in Nebraska.
After regulators ruled their initial application was incomplete earlier this year, the companies promised to refile next month, with hopes to complete the process in 2027.
Competitors and some customers have pushed back against the deal, arguing it will consolidate too much of the nation’s freight rail network into one company’s hands.
President Donald Trump, however, has indicated his approval in prior remarks.
In addition to a Fortune 500 headquarters, the proposed plan would cost Atlanta jobs as operations consolidate in Nebraska, the application outlined.
In total, more than half the Midtown headquarters’ management employee headcount would either relocate to Omaha or lose their jobs, the filing said.
Unionized employees have been guaranteed roles at the proposed new company, but some may have to relocate.
“There’s no denying that uncertainty creates anxiety,” George acknowledged, about the proposed consolidation’s effects on Norfolk Southern’s morale.
But in a joint interview with Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena, George told the AJC the companies are already acting to proactively prevent as many job losses in both staffs as possible.
Both have largely frozen hiring in management ranks, he said, “to go into this merger lean so as few people lose their jobs as possible. That’s the goal.”
They are already shrinking 6%-7% at the management level by not filling vacancies, he said.
The biggest impact will be “at the top of the house,” Vena said. “Because it’s pretty simple. You only need one CFO, right?”
And George insisted that Union Pacific will remain a prominent corporate resident in Atlanta, post-merger, just as Norfolk Southern was a major employer in Atlanta before it moved its headquarters to Georgia in 2018.
“We had a huge presence in Atlanta and Georgia before the headquarters moved there. And even after we consummate this merger, we’re going to have a huge presence,” George said.
He said he expects the company’s total Georgia headcount to remain at about 3,000 post-merger — versus its current 4,000.
“You go up Peachtree, West Peachtree, you see a Microsoft building; you see a Google building,” George said.
“You see a lot of companies that are using Atlanta as a satellite center. … They’re leveraging the presence of a talent pool in Atlanta.”
That’s what the new Union Pacific will do too, he predicted.
“We don’t have all the answers today exactly how we’re going to integrate, but we’re going to figure out how best to leverage the talent we have in Atlanta,” George said.
Vena, who plans to remain CEO of the unified company, agreed.
George said Vena is in Atlanta once or twice a month to get to know the team.
Companies no longer need all employees centralized in one place, Vena said.
Proximity to the railroad’s network and customer base on the East Coast is crucial, as is the ability to recruit and retain talent.
Particularly Norfolk Southern’s technology team — whose work includes partnerships on AI-driven safety innovation with Georgia Tech — will remain “heavily relied upon by the combined company,” George said, and remains easier to recruit from Atlanta.
“When you put that all in the mix, Atlanta is real important to us. It will be significant and we will have a lot of employees there still,” Vena said.
The Norfolk Southern brand
The two CEOs discussed the branding of a theoretically combined company early on, George said.
But it was clear to him that it didn’t make sense to dilute the Union Pacific brand.
“Union Pacific was basically created by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, and the vision was to create a transcontinental railroad,” he said.
Lincoln, a railroad attorney, created the origins of Union Pacific by signing the Pacific Railway Act during the Civil War.
“I know that there’s a long history, including with Norfolk Southern, where we dilute brands and keep amalgamating initials (in the railroad industry),” George said.
It’s how Norfolk Southern was formed back in 1982, he noted, from the Norfolk & Western and the Southern Railway Co.
And while his predecessors “did a brilliant job building employee and customer loyalty to a brand new name,” he noted, “at the end of the day, what would it mean if it became UPNS? It’s still going to be another brand, right?”
“It doesn’t make any sense, from my objective and perspective, to dilute the history and legacy of the (Union Pacific) brand,” George said.
That being said, Vena vowed that a unified company wouldn’t “whitewash” Norfolk Southern’s heritage.
It won’t paint over the black and white branded railroad locomotives, for example, he said.
It might rebrand its divisions to reflect Norfolk Southern as well.
“We think that the Norfolk Southern culture and name can still be part of who we are as we move ahead,” Vena said.
About the Author
As a business reporter, Emma Hurt leads coverage of the Atlanta airport, Delta Air Lines, UPS, Norfolk Southern and other travel and logistics companies. Prior to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she worked as an editor and Atlanta reporter for Axios, a politics reporter for WABE News and a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
