(The following story by Paige Winfield appeared on the Suburban Chicago News website on March 10.)
CHICAGO — As DuPage County officials anticipate more traffic congestion after the likely sale of the EJ&E railroad, they hope some federal dollars can at least soften the blow.
County board members Jim Healy of Naperville and Pam Rion of Bloomingdale met with nearly 100 other local officials from the collar counties and Indiana on Friday to discuss the possible purchase of the rail line by Canadian National Railroad. Currently under review by the Surface Transportation Board, the sale would result in up to a 400 percent increase in rail traffic in the region.
In DuPage County, 21 grade crossings would be affected by the sale. Members of the county’s legislative committee hope that at least some of those crossings can be separated, using federal money obtained with the help of a new lobbyist.
Village leaders in Wayne and Bartlett have urged the CN, if the takeover goes through, to create an overpass or underpass where the EJ&E crosses Stearns Road. The EJ&E now crosses Wayne’s main street, Army Trail Road, at grade level. It also crosses one of Bartlett’s main entrance routes, West Bartlett Road, at grade level.
Although most crossings will cost an average of $30 million to $35 million to separate, Ogden Avenue will require closer to $80 million, Healy said. He said that crossing, and the one at Stearns Road, are the first crossings that need to be separated.
“Ogden Avenue is the No. 1 at-grade crossing for EJ&E,” Healy said. “Over 50,000 cars cross that track a day. That’s a phenomenal amount.”
Healy said that after U.S. Sen Dick Durbin, D-Ill, and other elected officials expressed strong opposition to the sale recently, leaders in the collar counties were encouraged to keep fighting the acquisition. Discussions about hiring a shared federal lobbyist are ongoing, he said.
“This is a very energized group … there is very much an interest on this thing,” Healy said. “Hopefully at our next meeting, we’ll say we’ll all chip in the pot and we’ll each pay a portion of the share (for a lobbyist).”
Brien Sheahan, chairman of the legislative committee, said he believes the county should hire an EJ&E lobbyist to address the “serious implications” the sale poses for western DuPage County.
“The thought is to hire a lobbyist to work with the Justice Department and federal transportation authorities to help get resources to address the problems create by the at-grade crossings,” Sheahan said.