(The following report by Richard Wronski appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on July 26.)
CHICAGO — Federal officials reviewing the impact of the proposed acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway by the Canadian National Railway concluded Friday that the $300 million deal would not affect existing Metra or Amtrak passenger service or proposed Metra expansion in the Chicago area.
Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama had raised strong concerns about the fate of Amtrak service as a result of the deal.
The draft environmental report issued Friday by the staff of the Surface Transportation Board concluded that the proposal would not prevent the implementation of Metra’s proposed suburb-to-suburb STAR line but could introduce “potential operational complexities.”
Metra and other opponents of the CN plan to purchase the EJ&E had expressed concerns that the deal would jeopardize development of the STAR line.
CN seeks to use the EJ&E tracks to reroute its freight trains away from Chicago’s congested rail corridor and through an arc of outlying suburbs, all of which would see a significant increase in freight traffic.
Similarly, the report concluded that it would be physically possible for CN to run increased freight train traffic as proposed without adversely affecting the proposed Metra Southeast Service to the south suburbs, but that CN and Metra would need to work together closely to ensure on-time performance.
The report called CN’s projected increase in trains on the EJ&E line reasonable, concluding that traffic unlikely would be heavier than CN’s estimate. Opponents had cited concerns that CN’s estimate of freight traffic was too low.
There are four locations at which increased freight traffic on the EJ&E line crosses rail lines with Metra operations: Barrington, Spaulding, West Chicago and Joliet-Rock Island Tower. At these locations, the report said, CN and Metra would need to work together closely to ensure that the increase in CN freight trains on the EJ&E line can be operated efficiently.