(The following story by Erika Slife appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on June 17.)
CHICAGO — As the afternoon stretched close to rush hour on Monday, cars began stacking up on Illinois Highway 126, the main road into Plainfield from Interstate Highway 55.
The traffic jam at quitting time offered a snapshot of what driving in Plainfield would be like constantly if the Canadian National Railway Co. were to purchase the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway line, Plainfield officials told U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) on a tour of the village’s railroad crossings.
The proposal would increase the number of trains crossing Illinois 126—and 16 other railway crossings in Plainfield—to as many as 50 trains a day from eight to 12, officials said. Instead of waiting for freight trains to pass every two hours or so, motorists would have to stop approximately every 20 minutes, they said.
“It’s bumper to bumper on this road,” Mayor James Waldorf told Biggert. “It’s a standstill.”
Since CN announced eight months ago that it would pay $300 million to buy the EJ&E line to bypass the train gridlock in Chicago, suburbs from Waukegan to Joliet have been organizing in protest. Their concerns include safety, noise, congestion and pollution.
The purchase is pending before the federal Surface Transportation Board. One of the sticking points is who will pay for billions of dollars’ worth of grade-crossing improvements, such as underpasses, sound walls and other measures to mitigate the effects of tripling or quadrupling freight traffic.
CN’s stance is that federal, state and local governments should pay the vast majority of the costs and offered to invest $40 million as its “fair share.”
“What is that?” Biggert said Monday. “One grade crossing?”
Joined by Waldorf, Village Administrator Alex Harris, Police Chief Donald Bennett and other local officials, Biggert said she is against the proposal as it is.
Many other suburbs and the City of Chicago, however, strongly endorse the purchase, saying it would reduce train congestion in their own areas.
Besides Illinois 126, the group stopped at the West 143rd Street crossing.
“This isn’t a political issue,” Waldorf said. “This is about getting students to school, patients to hospitals and grandparents to their grandchildren.”