(The following story from Stateline.org appeared on the Bellingham Herald website on May 29, 2011.)
CHICAGO — It is an all-too-common experience. An Amtrak passenger train traveling from Michigan, just eight miles from its final stop at Chicago’s downtown Union Station, has to idle for 15 minutes at a signal tower on the South Side. Before it can go any further, a commuter train on a different set of tracks must cross through the intersection. This is what’s known as a chokepoint – and it is a huge problem for a city whose tracks handle millions of commuters and a quarter of the nation’s freight rail traffic.
The problem in Chicago is so bad that the railroads are working with state, federal and city transportation agencies to unclog the network. They are embarking on a $3 billion plan, called the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program. It could take up to 10 years to complete. It is designed to reduce delays to just one-sixth of what they are now.
Full story: Bellingham Herald