(The following story by Guy Tridgell appeared on the South Town Star website on August 26.)
CHICAGO — The prospect of running more trains on the EJ&E Railroad line and forever altering suburban lifestyles led to another packed public meeting Monday night.
About 300 people jammed into a ballroom at the Holiday Inn in Matteson to listen and chime in on Canadian National Railway’s plans to buy the EJ&E.
And once again, the plans elicited no shortage of passion.
“I’m right in the middle of the storm,” said Chicago Heights senior citizen Jean Dottavio, who lives next to an EJ&E crossing. “If I have to go to the hospital, I have to cross those tracks. Plus, I don’t want the noise and the dirt.”
CN wants to buy from U.S. Steel for $300 million the 198 miles of EJ&E tracks rimming the Chicago area and cutting through Southland towns such as Chicago Heights, Park Forest, Matteson, Frankfort and New Lenox.
The towns along the tracks would see train traffic more than triple as CN reroutes trains from busier rail lines in Chicago and the inner suburbs.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board is hosting eight meetings on the proposed sale through Sept. 11. Despite pressure from CN to accelerate the approval process, the board will issue a final ruling between Dec. 1 and Jan 31.
Julian Alexander said his home in Richton Park’s Meadow Lakes subdivision would be cut off from police and fire services if the merger goes through.
“If there is an emergency in our community, we are stuck,” said Alexander, whose home abuts the tracks.
A sore point in the suburbs remains CN’s reluctance to pay more for overpasses and underpasses where roads intersect with the EJ&E line. Of the dozens of such spots, the Surface Transportation Board has identified 15 as needing major improvements, typically overpasses or underpasses.
CN, so far, is offering to pay for no more than 10 percent of the improvements
Frankfort resident Judy Bird said CN, with approximately $2 billion in annual profits, should be a better neighbor.
“This clearly is a company that is making a lot of money,” Bird said. “I feel they should pay a lot a more. The local, state and federal governments can’t pay for it. My tax dollars should not go toward those improvements.”
But Orland Park developer Daniel Burns said the sale is a no-brainer. He said it would get more trucks off the road, replacing them with freight cars hauling goods into the area.
“There are too many trains getting stuck in Chicago, taking two or three days to get unloaded,” Burns said. “Chicago is built on rail. You would think as a regional issue, the general populace would want (the rail system) to run more efficient.”
The federal board will continue to accept comments on CN’s application until Sept. 30. More information about how to submit comments is at www.stb.dot.gov.