(The following story by Richard Wronski appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on April 15, 2009.)
CHICAGO — Freight trains blocked vehicle traffic at crossings along the former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway 50 times in February and March, including a nearly three-hour shutdown in Park Forest, according to the first report card on the hot-button issue since the Canadian National Railway took over the local line.
Four rail crossings were blocked more than two hours, and eight others—from Wayne to Naperville to Gary—were closed for more than an hour for various mechanical and switching reasons, the data showed.
The incidents were contained in the first compliance report the CN filed with the federal Surface Transportation Board as a condition for approval of its $300 million purchase of the EJ&E. The report, made available Tuesday, lists blockages of 10 minutes or more.
The Montreal-based railroad said there is no previous data with which to compare the February-March findings and promised to do better.
The issue of blocked rail crossings was one of the main objections suburbs along the EJ&E raised to the purchase. Many communities fear that additional trains will delay police, ambulances and fire equipment. Tom Mick, village manager of Park Forest, said there have always been blocked crossings along the EJ&E and questioned the report’s accuracy.
“Three [blockages in Park Forest] in excess of 10 minutes sounds really low based on my observations in the community,” he said.
The Feb. 19 Park Forest blockage lasting 170 minutes was due to a frozen switch, the railroad said.
CN Vice President Karen Phillips said in a letter to the transportation board that most of the blockages involved existing EJ&E trains for which CN so far hasn’t significantly changed operations.
The railroad started running its trains on the EJ&E on March 11. Since then, only two trains have used the line each day, the railroad said.
Many of the blockages occurred between midnight and 5 a.m. when there is minimal auto traffic, Phillips said.
“These numbers, which indicate on average that there was less than one blockage-causing event per day during the reporting period, are likely somewhat overstated,” Phillips wrote.
Phillips said CN was “not satisfied with the frequency” and is working hard to reduce them through better dispatching, improved crew communications and infrastructure improvements.
CN plans to triple or quadruple freight traffic along the line, which it will use to bypass Chicago’s congested rail corridor.
The Regional Answer to Canadian National, a coalition of suburbs opposed to the CN deal, has been keeping track of delays on its own through online citizen complaints, said Karen Darch, Barrington village president. “Our big fear is getting an ambulance stuck in a blockage and you have a patient that might not survive,” she said.
The Barrington-Countryside Fire Protection District said Tuesday that it has strengthened its automatic aid agreement with the Lake Zurich Fire Department to reduce the risk of emergency-response delays caused by freight trains.