(The following story by Richard Wronski appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on March 11.)
CHICAGO — The Canadian National Railway Co. is offering to spend $40 million for overpasses in suburban areas facing major increases in freight train traffic under its plan to bypass congestion in Chicago, the railroad said Monday.
The CN also pledged to cap Amtrak’s costs for the use of CN tracks, which the railroad said should calm fears that passenger service south to Springfield, Carbondale and other Illinois cities would be jeopardized by buying the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
Both issues were addressed Monday in a letter from CN President E. Hunter Harrison to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Melissa Bean, who have been critical of the CN’s plans.
Durbin, in response, told the Tribune that the railroad’s pledge of overpass money is inadequate and that the Amtrak offer would be only a “temporary fix.”
The letter spells out commitments Harrison said he made to the Democratic legislators in a meeting Wednesday in Washington. Harrison told Durbin and Bean he was “disappointed by your mischaracterization” of the meeting in a news release the legislators had issued.
The CN seeks to buy the EJ&E — which skirts the Chicago area from Waukegan to Joliet and Gary — for $300 million. If the federal Surface Transportation Board approves the deal, freight traffic on the line would quadruple through many suburbs.
The letter said the railroad anticipates investing “roughly $40 million for mitigation efforts,” a reference to constructing overpasses at grade crossings.
Harrison previously told the Tribune the CN would pay its “fair share” for three or four overpasses along the EJ&E’s 198-mile route, with the federal and state governments picking up most of the tab.
But $40 million “isn’t even close” to the real cost of building needed overpasses and might pay for two at most, Durbin said. The EJ&E has 133 vehicle crossings.
The CN letter said it would allow Amtrak to continue paying its current rate, with an adjustment for inflation, for use of CN tracks running south from Union Station in Chicago.
But the CN fails to address Amtrak’s long-term need for a new rail crossing on the South Side that would prevent Amtrak trains from being delayed by freight traffic, Durbin said.