(The following story by Mike Monson appeared on the News-Gazette website on March 23.)
CHICAGO — Ehab Samy, 22, was sitting in the lobby on the second floor at Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign recently, waiting for a late-morning Amtrak train to Chicago.
A University of Illinois graduate with a degree in economics, Samy was headed for a job interview. The Champaign resident says he uses Amtrak to get to Chicago five or six times a year.
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“I can drive, but I’d rather take the train,” he said. “I just don’t want to mess with Chicago traffic – that and gas prices.”
Nearby, wearing a Cubs cap, was UI graduate and Seattle resident Roger Wolfson. He was headed to Chicago to visit family after stopping in town to recruit UI computer programming students to work for his employer, Seattle-based video-game-maker Bungie.
“This is a very convenient alternative,” Wolfson said.
The two young men were among about 50 Amtrak passengers awaiting a train on a recent weekday morning. Passenger service is booming in Champaign, with a record 129,959 people either boarding or disembarking from one of the six daily Amtrak trains during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.
Despite those numbers, local, Amtrak and state officials say they are worried about the future of train service to Chicago. Their concern comes in the wake of Canadian National’s announcement in September that it would purchase, for $300 million, the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Co., a 198-mile loop through suburban Chicago into northwest Indiana. The line, currently owned by a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, runs from Waukegan to West Chicago, Joliet and Gary, Ind.
Canadian National owns the former Illinois Central Railroad tracks that serve Champaign, Carbondale and Chicago.
If it gets federal Surface Transportation Board approval for the purchase, Canadian National’s intentions are to reroute its freight traffic around Chicago and avoid what one official calls a significant freight bottleneck in Chicago that slows deliveries.
But that reroute would mean that Canadian National would no longer need the last 11 miles of track north of 94th Street in Chicago that Amtrak uses to connect with Chicago’s Union Station, including a short stretch of elevated track known as the St. Charles Air Line.
Canadian National has indicated it would eventually like to abandon that section of rail, which is prime south Loop development property near Lake Michigan. But abandonment would leave Amtrak without an efficient route into Union Station and could lead to substantial delays.
“We want to be on at least as good of a route as we are now,” Magliari said.
Amtrak’s concerns have prompted the Champaign City Council and the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce to pass resolutions, forwarded to the Surface Transportation Board, opposing any change to Amtrak service that “increases route times and delays” between Champaign and Chicago.
“We really could care less if they purchase the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern,” said Laura Weis, president and CEO of the chamber. “Our issue is how it (affects) downstate Amtrak service.”
Canadian National officials now say they believe recent concessions they’ve made to Amtrak should alleviate concerns about the future of local passenger rail service.
At a March 5 meeting between Canadian National President and CEO E. Hunter Harrison, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., Harrison committed to allow Amtrak to use the St. Charles Air Line “indefinitely.” Harrison also agreed to cap Amtrak’s costs for maintaining the line at their current level, indexed for inflation in future years.
“They can use that 11 miles until such time as they get on a route that’s preferable to them,” Canadian National spokesman Jim Kvedaras said. “That Amtrak route is not in any jeopardy in any way, shape or form.”
Amtrak’s current agreement to use the track runs through Jan. 31, 2010.
Durbin is arguing that Canadian National should contribute financially toward what all parties agree would be the best long-term solution: building a new connection between Canadian National and Norfolk Southern Railroad at Grand Crossing, near 75th Street in Chicago. The connection would end the need for Amtrak to use the St. Charles Air Line and would provide a 10-minutes-quicker, more direct route into Union Station via Norfolk Southern tracks.
But the Grand Crossing connection would cost at least $25 million – and no one has come up with a way to pay for it.
“We asked Canadian National, ‘Are you willing to make an investment in Grand Crossing so we can solve this problem once and for all?’ And the answer was ‘no,'” Durbin said in a phone interview. “In most cases, the railroads come to the table because it’s important to them, but Canadian National hasn’t expressed an interest.”
Kvedaras said Canadian National would not use Grand Crossing and has no intention of helping pay for it.
“That’s not our project,” he said. “It was never intended to be.”
But recent statements from Durbin and Amtrak President Alex Kummant have been more conciliatory. Durbin, in a March 17 statement, called Canadian National’s offer to cap costs for the use of the St. Charles Air Line “promising,” though he still mentioned Grand Crossing.
Kummant wrote in a March 12 letter to Harrison that “Amtrak stands willing to enter into an agreement” to use the St. Charles Air Line until the Grand Crossing Route “or another alternative acceptable to Amtrak is available.” He wrote that he had asked Amtrak’s law department to contact C.N. attorneys to draw up such an agreement.
Kummant also made a pitch for Canadian National assistance in building the Grand Crossing connection, saying Amtrak could “gladly” support the rail purchase if it would work with Amtrak and others “to address the underlying funding issues for the Grand Crossing Route.”
“It is, after all, in the public interest and will provide financial benefits to your railroad, which will have to maintain a continuing investment in a segment of track you no longer need or use,” Kummant wrote.
Overall, Canadian National officials argue that the purchase of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern line will be in the public interest because it will help reduce freight-train congestion in Chicago without costly rail improvements.
The congestion problem has led to the creation of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency program. The program is a public-private partnership among the state, Chicago and six of the nation’s freight railroads that is calling for $1.5 billion in investments in Chicago railroad infrastructure over the next decade, including the Grand Crossing connection. But federal funding for the program has been disappointing, officials said.
Canadian National officials also note that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is supporting their proposed acquisition of the rail line, writing in a Jan. 15 letter that the purchase would help reduce rail congestion in Chicago “without the need for public spending.”
Chicago suffers from congested rail corridors, which delays trains, blocks crossings, wastes energy, degrades air quality and hurts neighborhoods, Daley wrote. He asked that the Surface Transportation Board make sure that Amtrak isn’t harmed.
Durbin said he has other concerns about the rail acquisition besides the effect on Amtrak. He’s also hearing from Chicago suburbs worried about increased freight traffic. If the purchase is approved, Canadian National would increase the number of freight trains in the northwest suburbs from about five to 20 trains a day, and, in the southwest suburbs, from about 15 to 40 trains a day.
“That’s going to change a lot of traffic patterns in communities that haven’t had heavy train traffic,” Durbin said.
Canadian National has committed to spending $40 million on new underpasses and overpasses in those suburbs, but Durbin calls that figure “woefully inadequate.”
Another issue is that Metra, Chicago’s commuter line, was planning to add a new intersuburban line that would use the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern tracks. With heavy freight traffic, that won’t be possible, and Metra will have to spend another $80 million to $90 million installing new tracks adjacent to the existing line, Durbin said.
For now, the issue is before the Surface Transportation Board, which will prepare an environmental impact statement about the proposed purchase, a process that could take more than a year. The board can impose conditions on a sale.
Durbin on Feb. 15 called for the board to expand its environmental impact analysis of the sale and hold public hearings in cities served by Amtrak.