Exhibit 99

CNW Contact:   Michael W. Payette
               (312) 633-4310

                                                      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bethlehem, March 17, 1995 - Union Pacific Corporation (UNP) and Chicago and
North Western Transportation Company (CNW) announced today that they have
executed a definitive agreement reflecting the previously announced transaction 
in which Union Pacific will acquire 100 percent of CNW's common stock at a price
of $35 per share in cash.  Union Pacific will shortly commence a tender offer 
for all CNW shares.  Following the consummation of the tender offer, Union 
Pacific will acquire the remaining outstanding CNW shares in a merger for $35 
per share in cash.      
     "This acquisition will strengthen our capacity to compete in the key 
western freight corridors," said Drew Lewis, Union Pacific chairman and CEO.  
"It will increase Union Pacific's growing intermodal traffic from the major West
Coast ports to the Midwest and enhance our low-sulfur coal shipments out of the 
Powder River Basin in Wyoming to the Mississippi Valley and the East.  We are 
delighted to have this fine railroad joining the Union Pacific family."
     "In addition to providing a substantial premium for our shareholders," said
Robert Schmiege, chairman, president and CEO of the CNW, "this merger offers an
opportunity for our customers and virtually all of our employees to participate 
in a larger railroad with broader horizons, greater resources and enhanced 
opportunities for the marketing of our customers' products and our employees' 
professional growth." 
     Union Pacific Corporation is a transportation and natural resource company
based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with sales of approximately $8 billion.
     The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company is the holding
company for the Chicago and North Western Railway Company, a leading railroad
freight hauler in the central transcontinental corridor and major transporter of
coal, grain and double-stack containers.

                                 -031795t-