(The Associated Press distributed the following article on October 21.)
ASSUMPTION, Ill. – Short-line railroads are lifelines linking Illinois’ farm communities to distant markets. But many tracks are in jeopardy of being abandoned, experts and farmers say.
New federal weight regulations require costly upgrades, and if railroad companies don’t want to spend the money, they could abandon thousands of miles of line.
The Assumption Cooperative Grain Co. relies on a 17-mile track once operated by the Illinois Central Railroad to link a grain elevator in Assumption, near Decatur, Ill., with customers on the east and gulf coasts.
“If we didn’t have the railroad, we would basically have access to one market, and that would be Decatur,” said Tom Bressner, the company’s general manager.
Towns on 71 miles of track running from LaHarpe to Peoria, Ill., face loss of service as the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway seeks federal approval to abandon the line.
Many other Illinois towns could face the same predicament.
The new federal rule requires railroads to upgrade tracks and rails to handle cars weighing 286,000 pounds, up from 263,000 pounds.
The rule is meant to allow the efficient interchange of rail cars with the major railroads, said Joseph Schwieterman, an economics professor at DePaul University.
Bressner and the 2,000 members of the Assumption cooperative say they are lucky. In 1985 the Interstate Commerce Commission, now known as the Surface Transportation Board, forbade the Illinois Central to abandon the tracks that run through town.
Instead, the commission ordered the company to sell the line to the Assumption and nearby Moweaqua Farmers Coop grain elevators.
Now the line is owned by Pioneer Railcorp, a company that owns 14 small railroads nationwide, including three in Illinois.
“The abandonment of the rail line for many towns was devastating to local economic development,” Schwieterman said. “It’s denied them a chance to compete for agribusiness and other forms of heavy industry.”
Small railroads are a bargain for the state, said Allen Brown, chief operating officer of Pioneer Railcorp.
For example, at least 12,000 tractor-trailers would be needed to transport the grain from Assumption alone, adding millions of dollars in highway maintenance costs for the state, Brown said.