Offer to Buy Conrail Dropped

RICHMOND, Va. — The Norfolk Southern Corp. today dropped its 2-year-old, $1.9-billion offer to buy Conrail, a company spokesman said.

Norfolk Southern Chairman Robert B. Claytor advised Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole of his decision to stop trying to buy the government-owned freight line. Dole had selected Norfolk Southern as the preferred buyer in February, 1985, and that selection later was endorsed by the Senate and the Reagan Administration. The offer had stalled in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chairman, John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), said the merger of the two rail lines would be anti-competitive.