The purchase by Union Pacific Corp. of...

The purchase by Union Pacific Corp. of the “Katy” railroad, a regional line that runs from Nebraska to the Gulf Coast, has been approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The ICC’s approval requires Union Pacific and Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, as the Katy is formally known, to grant trackage rights to other railroads in several regions where direct competition otherwise would be reduced. The commission acknowledged that the merger would result in the elimination of some jobs and abandonment of more than 300 miles of tracks where the two rail systems run parallel tracks.