(The following story by Regan Foster appeared on The Herald website on March 7.)
CHICAGO — Two area legislators said Thursday that a meeting with an international rail chief did little to quell worries about the impact that a proposed $300 million rail buyout could have in the northwest suburbs.
U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Barrington, and U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin met with Canadian National Railway President and Chief Executive E. Hunter Harrison on Wednesday to state their fears about the pending buyout of the nearly 200-mile Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
Canadian National, in a statement, countered that while there were different opinions on the matter, it was “committed to keeping the dialogue open to resolve issues.”
Canadian National announced in the fall that it planned to buy a substantial portion of the EJ&E.
The line stretches in a southwesterly loop from Waukegan to South Chicago, passing through Barrington, Lake Zurich and Spaulding.
While the lines don’t cross into McHenry County, they do pass over several roadways, including Routes 14 and 59, that act as portals to the county. They also have been identified as a site for Metra’s proposed Suburban Transit Access Route Line.
Canadian National has proposed increasing daily rail traffic along the local stretch from five to about 20 trains. That has lawmakers, residents and community leaders worried.
Questions still lingered about the social, environmental and economic impact of the proposal on communities, the potential congestion for the STAR Line, and the effect that the expansion would have on Amtrak service.
“We had a number of different concerns that we had expressed and thought [Harrison] might be able to address them,” Bean said. “What we found instead was he was pretty noncommittal relative to the 400 percent increase in traffic congestion … to the costs of mitigation.”
Durbin said Harrison offered little to no assurance that the company would help communities absorb the impact.
Canadian National has pledged $100 million in infrastructure work, but Durbin said only two of the 140 railroad crossings along the line would be reworked to ease congestion. He added that exactly where the two crossings were still was unclear.
“My thinking is this,” he said. “A comprehensive and thoughtful response to our concerns would be very expensive to CN.”
That’s because the price tag to relocate a rail line either above or below a roadway intersection generally is several million dollars, Durbin said. Finding an alternative rail for the STAR Line, he added, could increase the cost by $80 million.
“The amount of money involved for this acquisition at the federal level is prohibitive,” Durbin said. “The cost of dealing with the damage done … is soon more than the cost of the initial purchase, which is $400 million.”
Canadian National, in its statement, said it had committed to allowing Amtrak to use an access route from downtown to downstate tracks “indefinitely.”
It also committed to working with Metra to explore keeping the STAR Line on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern track.
“CN is working closely and in a spirit of full cooperation with the [Surface Transportation Board], communities and all elected officials,” the railroad’s statement said. “We look forward to working through the federal approval process as expeditiously as possible.”