(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on May 13, 2009.)
CHICAGO — Canadian National Railway vowed to cut the number of long delays at road crossings caused by train operations over its newly acquired Chicago-area short line, and did just that.
CN told the Surface Transportation Board, in its second monthly report, that delays to road traffic of 10 minutes or longer fell to just 14 incidents in April from 50 in March, on rail lines of Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway outside Chicago.
The large Canadian carrier early this year completed its $300 million purchase of EJ&E from United States Steel, after fierce opposition from area suburbs.
CN wanted the short line so it could shift some traffic out of a bogged-down track network in central Chicago, but suburban officials feared their already substantial traffic problems would worsen once CN began running its trains on EJ&E tracks.
As part of its approval of the purchase plan, the STB ordered the railroad to submit special reports to help the agency monitor the ongoing environmental impact.
The STB requires CN to report crossing blockages that last at least 10 minutes. The list for April includes one lasting 76 minutes and another 50 minutes. During March, some trains had sat across road crossings for two to three hours at a time.
CN is also listing some operating changes it will implement. For instance, it said some trains stopped across roads as they waited for other trains to move through or because barge traffic caused a rail bridge span to be raised. In such cases and others, CN is now listing corrective measures it will take, such as holding trains down the line until their path is clear of traffic that will interrupt their movements.
CN’s reports come from Karen Phillips, vice president for North American government relations and a former U.S. rail regulator. She wrote that the better report in April came because “we have spent a significant amount of time working to change the historical operating practices on the EJ&E to emphasize the importance of ensuring that crossings not be blocked with trains stopped for more than 10 minutes.”
CN is also moving slowly to add volume, as Phillips said “we have not diverted any CN trains” in April from center-city to EJ&E tracks, after shifting one northbound train and one southbound in March.
The economic slump also has dampened rail traffic, giving CN some breathing room to implement operational changes as it absorbs EJ&E traffic and crews. The company said it had to furlough six more train crew workers on that line in April.