(The following story by Tom Musick appeared on the Northwest Herald website on July 27.)
CHICAGO — Congressional leaders from both parties blasted a preliminary environmental impact statement Friday regarding Canadian National’s proposed deal to buy the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway.
The Surface Transportation Board released a draft report about CN’s $300 million proposal to buy a 200-mile railway through suburban Chicago to increase freight traffic.
The report cited potential safety and traffic problems and included measures that could ease the impact of the deal.
A 60-day public-comment period on the draft report will begin Aug. 1. A final environmental impact statement could be issued between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31, officials said.
The EJ&E does not cut through McHenry County, but it does affect northwest Cook County and popular regional routes such as Route 14 and Algonquin Road.
Canadian National has targeted the railway, which loops roughly from Waukegan to Gary, Ind., as a way to relieve congestion in and around Chicago.
U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Barrington, denounced the board’s report Friday. She will join other suburban U.S. representatives at a field hearing Aug. 5 to collect testimony from experts that will be submitted to the STB.
“We’re extremely disappointed,” Bean said. “There are both local and federal concerns about the drastic, negative consequences for the communities that the STB essentially admits and acknowledges but provides no real solutions.”
Canadian National representatives called the STB’s draft report an important step in the regulatory process.
“The facts set forth in the [report] conform to our view that the environmental issues raised in this proceeding are not unusual and can be reasonably mitigated,” according to a CN statement. “CN remains committed to continuing to work with all communities along the EJ&E to come to an agreement on appropriate mitigation measures.”
The deal would add 15 to 20 freight trains a day through Barrington and other communities, causing traffic and safety problems for McHenry County drivers, said U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan. Yet regulators said CN should pay 5 percent to 10 percent of the mitigation costs for the project, he said.
“As a result, taxpayers will be required to fund the hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements needed to mitigate the public problems caused by this private transaction,” Manzullo said in a statement.
Barrington Hills Village President Robert Abboud, who is running for the 16th Congressional District as a Democrat, sharply has criticized the proposed deal. Steve Greenberg, a Republican who will challenge Bean for the 8th Congressional District seat, also has been a vocal opponent of CN’s plan.
Bean said the proposal could threaten Metra’s proposed 55-mile STAR line, a suburban commuter-rail service that would connect 100 towns and four of its 12 existing routes from O’Hare Airport to Joliet.