(The following editorial appeared on the Bloomington Pantagraph website on November 10.)
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — While officials along the Union Pacific Railroad worry about moving people at high speeds between Chicago and St. Louis, communities in the northern and western parts of the state are taking an interest in moving freight that could lead to distribution centers in their communities.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe has agreed to pick up about a third of the costs of a campaign to market cities along its route, which also happen to front Illinois 34 from Galesburg northeast into the far western suburbs of Chicago.
Railroad officials, who pitched the plan to the Galesburg Chamber of Commerce recently, say they want to attract major companies in need of Midwest distribution service. They’re considering Galesburg as a southern anchor. Joliet would be the northern anchor to serve Chicago-area businesses.
Galesburg, like Bloomington, is an old railroad town with ample rail-yard space.
Most of the emphasis in the Twin Cities in recent years has been on getting high-speed, passenger rail service on the Union Pacific line. Normal even has plans for a multimodal transportation center that could feature high-speed Amtrak service.
Several years ago, Bloomington was pushing to develop the approximately 70-acre west side rail yards that were virtually abandoned in 1985 when the Chicago Missouri and Western Railroad sought bankruptcy.
Originally, there was talk of building a housing development, recreation area or a new Central Catholic High school on the land, but those proposals fell through, in part because of a massive environmental cleanup that may have been required. Leaking fluids were common in the old trains, plus there wasn’t the concern for proper disposal of liquid wastes when the rail yards were in their prime.
A 445,000-bushel grain storage and loading facility was opened on about 5 acres of the yards in 1999 and plans were announced for a “Railyard Commerce Center” on the remaining acreage. A St. Louis developer planned major warehouses to cover the land, a use that requires extensive, time-consuming Environmental Protection Agency approvals for each parcel. About 45 acres are still listed as “available” with the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal area, but city officials have not heard any recent plans for any of the land.
Now that the state has built a replacement bridge over Locust Street on the south and the city has completed a replacement bridge to carry Emerson Street over the tracks at the north end of the yards, there should be a renewed effort to develop the weed-infested land.
Perhaps city, economic development and Union Pacific Railroad officials can use any efforts in the Galesburg area as learning tools from which to develop land along the UP tracks through Central Illinois.