(The following Letter to the Editor by Karen Darch appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on May 16. Ms. Darch is the President of the Village of Barrington and a member of Regional Answer to Canadian National and Barrington Communities Against CN Rail Congestion.)
CHICAGO — As local elected officials united in opposition to Canadian National Railway’s proposed acquisition of the EJ&E rail line, we are disappointed at an April 24 Tribune editorial in support of this plan.
The Tribune says that our demands for CN to underwrite the $3 billion price tag for fixing these gridlock problems are “unreasonable and unprecedented.”
We say it’s time to start a new precedent.
CN, a foreign corporation, is the sole regional beneficiary of this plan and it has the wherewithal to finance all mitigation costs. Over the last several years, CN has averaged about $2 billion in profits on $8 billion in revenues.
Our society recognizes the idea that when someone commits an injury, he or she needs to make it right. It is not unreasonable that we expect CN, as the instigator of the harm it is creating in the region, to remedy the problem.
The Chicago Tribune dislikes the idea of “freight gridlock” but overlooks the inevitable commuter gridlock this deal will cause. Roads that currently have anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 cars crossing the EJ&E will see hours of traffic tie-ups every day as a result of this freight onslaught.
To address commuter gridlock, many suburban communities are looking to the construction of the Metra Star line as it promises to divert commuter traffic by enabling people to travel on public transit from suburb to suburb. As we see it, the Star line is doomed by this deal.
Additionally, current Metra operations will be disrupted when commuter trains across the region are repeatedly blocked by CN’s freight trains.
The region’s answer to freight gridlock is CREATE, a public/private partnership that was the result of careful planning between the railroads, the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. CREATE is an insightful multiyear plan that addresses regional gridlock problems; however, our state and federal leaders failed to secure public funds necessary to seal the deal with the railroads.
If CN is not required to pay for mitigation costs, the EJ&E will become another major freight corridor in need of huge infrastructure investments to make it bearable in the communities the line runs through. If public dollars aren’t available to fund CREATE, why does the Tribune think the money will be available to fix necessary mitigation in our communities?