(The following story by Richard Wronski appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on May 14.)
CHICAGO — Facing a year-end deadline, Canadian National Railway Co. on Tuesday asked federal regulators to decide by Dec. 1 whether the company will be allowed to purchase the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co., saying the deal could be jeopardized otherwise.
The purchase, if approved, would allow CN to shift its freight traffic around Chicago’s congested rail corridor via the EJ&E line running through outlying suburbs, most of which oppose the plan.
But if the purchase falls through, CN said, the need to reduce rail congestion in Chicago won’t go away. Thus, the EJ&E’s owner, United States Steel Corp., would have “strong incentive” to allow CN or another railroad to use the EJ&E as a bypass anyway, increasing freight traffic through the suburbs, CN said.
These alternatives “would not likely be as efficient or beneficial to the public interest” as CN’s plan, the railroad said in its request for an expedited timetable from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
CN said its agreement in October with U.S. Steel to purchase the EJ&E for $300 million has a Dec. 31 deadline. The railroad’s hope for an April 25 board decision was quashed when the board ordered a full environmental impact study of the purchase.
In its filing, CN said it is concerned that opponents of the deal will use a drawn-out environmental review process “as a means to stall the transaction until it dies or to impose onerous mitigation that would make the transaction economically unfeasible.”
Two coalitions of communities along the EJ&E arc stretching from Waukegan to Joliet to northern Indiana have organized in opposition to CN’s plans. They say train traffic in their communities would triple or quadruple, snarling grade crossings, slowing emergency response and reducing quality of life. Many other suburbs and Chicago, however, strongly support the project, saying it will reduce train congestion.
CN is asking the board to complete a draft environmental impact statement on the deal by July 15 and to complete its final analysis by Nov. 3. That would give the board until Dec. 1 to reach a decision.
CN called the proposed timetable “reasonable and feasible.” The EJ&E deal is much smaller in scope than a $10 billion Conrail transaction, which the board took 11 months to conclude, CN argued in its filing.
The board will review CN’s request and respond later, a board spokesman said.
Barrington Village President Karen Darch said a northwest suburban coalition opposes CN’s expedited timetable, and regulators must take whatever time is needed to conduct a complete environmental analysis.
“This is a transaction we will be living with for 100 years, and there’s not a reason to expedite it unnecessarily,” Darch said. “We want a full review.”