(The following report appeared on the Business Ledger website on January 30.)
CHICAGO — A proposed railroad acquisition has engendered both strong support and equally strong opposition by local government officials and business groups in the northwest suburbs.
The vastly differing points of view of different cities largely depends on which tracks of two railroads run through a community. Freight train traffic could either decrease dramatically or increase substantially.
Communities like Buffalo Grove are supporting the proposal by the Canadian National Railway Corp. (CNRC) to acquire the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (EJ&E) Railway Co. for $300 million.
In that community, for example, there will be far fewer freight trains because many of them will be diverted to the EJ&E tracks. Village manager William Brimm said that based on information from CNRC, traffic would drop from about 19 trains a day to two. The Wisconsin Central tracks of the CNRC run through the community.
“It is our hope that if the proposed transaction is approved, CN’s rerouting of certain existing freight traffic to the EJ&E will allow for better utilization of the line where commuter train demand is extremely high,” Brimm said.
“In addition, we anticipate that regional vehicular traffic congestion will see incremental improvement as a result of the proposed shift of freight traffic.”
However, strong opposition from communities like Barrington and others in the surrounding area goes far beyond irritation to concerns about safety and the impact on local business communities because freight train traffic will be increased substantially.
Currently three to five freight trains per day pass through Barrington on the EJ&E line. In its application to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB), the CNRC states that 15 trains per day would be added.
The EJ&E operates on 198 main line miles of track encircling the city of Chicago from Waukegan on the north to Joliet on the west to Gary, Ind., on the southeast to South Chicago. CNRC plans to invest approximately $100 million in integration, new connections and infrastructure improvements.
The company also states that freight trains will run from 7,000 to 10,000 feet in length. From end-to-end one train stopped in the right location could block all major intersections in Barrington, according to Karen Darch, president of that village.
Freight trains can take four to six minutes, sometime longer, to pass through town, depending on speed and other factors, she said.
“If only six minutes for the 20 trains per day CNRC will admit to, Barrington may experience two hours worth of direct train delay everyday, not counting the time it takes for traffic to clear.”
One of the only ways to avoid the waiting problem at railroad crossings is to build an underpass for the road, and that can be expensive. For instance, the four-lane underpass on County Farm Road near the DuPage County office complex in Wheaton cost roughly $25 million, according to Jason Gerwig, communications manager for the county.
Emergency medical services, fire, police and other critical care officials are also speaking out against what Darch called the dangerous impact of the increased freight traffic on the community where minutes can make the difference between life and death.
Also affected will be high school, middle school and elementary school-aged children, she said. The school board reported that school buses cross the EJ&E line nearby 400 times per day.
“The impact on safety, congestion, noise, home values, the environment and the overall quality of life in our communities is central to our concerns and why we are confronting the issue head on,” Darch said.
She is a spokesperson for Barrington Communities Against CN Rail Congestion. That coalition includes Barrington, Barrington Hills, Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, Tower Lakes, Deer Park, Cuba Township and Barrington Township.
The community showed its concern, Darch said, when some 1,600 people (by an STB estimate) showed up at a meeting to express their opposition to CN’s acquisition plans for the EJ&E. She noted that the STB staff was overwhelmed by the attendance and understands how serious the community’s objections are to this transaction.
“We understand that freight needs to move through the Chicago region, but rather than allowing a railroad to pursue increased profitability on the backs of localities that don’t have the infrastructure in place to deal with it, we must look to the alternatives based on the foundation of a well-reasoned regional freight management plan.”
The impact, specifically on the business community, was outlined in a letter from Janet Meyer, president of the Barrington Area Chamber of Commerce, to members of the organization. She said the EJ&E issue is of critical importance to all businesses.
“With the future economic vitality of the community in question, the board of directors has adopted a resolution in strong opposition to the proposed acquisition of the EJ&E Railways by the National Railway Corp,” she wrote to chamber members.
Peggy Blanchard, director of economic and community development for Barrington, said that if congestion increases, as it will with additional train traffic, then many of residents in neighboring communities who utilize the village today will look elsewhere to fulfill these needs.
“Barrington is not in a remote rural area where people will just have to learn to live with it,” she said. “This is a suburban area with other shopping options available.”
Blanchard said that any loss of consumer traffic will begin to erode the economic base and have a negative impact on the overall village economy.
“There will be significantly negative consequences. This is the most important issue that this community has faced, and it will forever change the character of our town,” wrote Michael Deering, director of communications for Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, on the opposition group’s Web site. “We’re not exaggerating when we say lives can and will be lost through this proposition.”
Good Shepherd is a Level II Trauma Center, which handles all but the most dire cases. The emergency department handled 750 serious trauma cases in 2007. Approximately a third of the ambulance runs from the area to Good Shepherd originated from the other side of the EJ&E tracks. If an ambulance were to wait for 10 or 15 minutes while a freight train passes, lives of patients could be compromised, Deering stated.
The top executive of the CNRC said it is time that public attention in the Chicago area refocuses on the broad rail transportation efficiency and environmental benefits of the company’s planned acquisition.
“CN is mindful of community concerns about the EJ&E transaction,” said E. Hunter Harrison, president and chief executive officer at the Canadian railroad company, “but believes local debate to date may have been too centered on the potential adverse impact on some communities when a broader examination of the transaction’s public interest benefits for the greater Chicago region is warranted.”
The executive said the company’s acquisition will be the latest in a series of progressive solutions designed to improve the efficiency of its operations as well as the flow of general rail traffic through the metropolitan area.
He said in recent years the company has developed innovative routing protocols with other major carriers to divert some rail traffic previously interchanged in Chicago to other locations across the central United States.
“But more needs to be done if Chicago is to play its role as a critical rail transportation hub for the country,” Harrison said.