(The following column by Richard Greene appeared on the Naperville Sun website on May 8. Mr. Greene is president and CEO of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.)
NAPERVILLE, Ill. — In late 2007, a subsidiary of Canadian National Railway Corporation filed its intent to purchase the 198 miles of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway from U.S. Steel Corporation. Since then scores of elected officials and municipalities have expressed their concerns with and opposition to the sale. The Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency in charge of reviewing the acquisition, issued a preliminary decision April 25, and its evaluation has entered a new phase.
Since the review process is moving forward, we think it’s appropriate that our membership and the business community have an opportunity to directly engage in the process. Jim Foote, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Canadian National, will speak at a special business briefing for the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce on the proposed acquisition of the EJ&E Rail Line from 7:30 to 9 a.m. May 16 at the Hilton Lisle/Naperville. After his presentation, a question-and-answer session will take place.
It is important to provide some context to the issue at hand. Chicago is our nation’s rail center, and there is a terrible congestion issue. It can take more than 24 hours to move 30 miles; traffic on the Dan Ryan can be bad and you might sit on the tarmac at O’Hare for longer than you’d like, but clearly, the rail congestion is slowing the movement of goods in our global economy and adding unnecessary pollution to our air quality.
There is, however, a very tough cost-benefit analysis that our region, elected officials and nation must do the hard math on because there are significant problems with rerouting the trains to the EJ&E. There are a little less than 150 crossings of the “J” that are “at grade,” and there are safety and traffic congestion concerns about the increase in rail traffic the sale would cause at those locations. Additionally, many of us found the proposed STAR Line, a Metra commuter service that would run suburb to suburb, to be a key driver of our future economic development, and it’s not clear how the sale affects the implementation of that service.
One thing is certain – it benefits no one to simply move the trains from one part of our region to another; at that point, we’re simply diffusing the rail and traffic congestion. If there aren’t significant line improvements, the result will be the same – gridlock. Secondly, the fate of the EJ&E needs to be part of a larger, properly funded program from multiple governmental levels to solve the rail congestion issue. Lastly, if approved, there needs to be measures that will mitigate the impact of the increased rail traffic on the local communities, such as Naperville, along the EJ&E.
It’s important that the business community continue to provide feedback to our leaders and make it known that transportation funding should be one of the top priorities of our governments, and that the rail congestion issue, specifically the EJ&E, needs to be properly addressed.
The cost for to attend the breakfast briefing is $25. Register online at www.naperville.net or by calling 630-355-4141.