(The following story by Marty Hawrysko appeared on the Herald News website on February 4.)
FRANKFORT, Ill. — Village officials are looking into all possible options for dealing with increased train traffic in the event that federal authorities give the go-ahead to Canadian National Railway’s purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
Mayor Jim Holland said the village will ask the federal government to create quiet zones in Frankfort. In quiet zones, trains are not required to blow a whistle at each intersection under normal circumstances.
“Right now, the [trains] honk every time they come to an intersection, which is offensive.”
According to Holland, the installation of four-way gates at each railroad crossing in the village is one of the requirements for Frankfort to be granted quiet zone status. A four-way gate prevents cars from driving around them.
According to Holland, the village is hoping that the Surface Transportation Board would order Canadian National Railway to install the necessary safety devices.
Road funding
The village also will ask for road improvements to help deal with the traffic hassles increased train traffic will inevitably bring.
Trustee Cynthia Heath said she would like LaGrange Road, which becomes a two-lane highway just south of Nebraska Street, to be widened to four lanes.
In Frankfort six roads intersect the railroad tracks. Trustee Todd Morgan said he would like the railroad to pay for upgrades of all six crossings so that the increased train traffic will be less of a hassle.
“All those are negotiable to try and get the best benefits for the village of Frankfort,” Morgan said.
Morgan hopes that the neighboring communities who share the EJ&E Railway will join in Frankfort’s campaign to oppose the acquisition.
“We’re trying to seek that out, and that’s part of our due diligence — to do our own homework and also aid those in their homework along our lines,” he said.
Letter to feds
Meanwhile, the village is preparing a letter for the Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency that will have to approve CN’s purchase of the line.
Pending approval, the deal may still be up to two years away. The board has ordered CN to commission an environmental impact study of the proposal, which could take six months to a year to complete. After that, a 45-day window is opened allowing the affected villages and residents to react.
After the Surface Transportation Board considers the environmental impact statement and what the villages and citizens have to say, it will make a decision on the acquisition, which may take weeks or months, according to Holland.
The Canadian National Railway plans to move trains from its already crowded railroads to the EJ&E Railway. The village is projecting that 21 additional trains may pass through the village per day.
“We’ve had representatives from our staff as well as our elected officials at the various meetings,” said Village Administrator Jerry Ducay. “Each time they’ve talked to our representatives from the Surface Transportation Board, they have been met with positive comments. So for us, we felt that they were generally concerned for what we had to say.”