(Reuters circulated the following story by Nick Carey on May 21.)
BARRINGTON, Ill. — Mike Maher and the other residents of this wooded, upscale Chicago suburb represent a challenge for U.S. railroads and regulators trying to meet the country’s growing freight transport needs.
Maher, 55, lives and works within sight of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway (EJ&E), a sleepy line owned by United States Steel Corp (X.N: Quote, Profile, Research) that sees maybe five trains a day.
Like many of the 10,000 residents of the town, where the median home value was $505,800 in 2005, Maher says he worries about plans by the huge Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) to buy EJ&E — a 198-mile loop around Chicago — and use it to circumvent the city’s chronically clogged rail network.
“CN’s plan raises safety issues, noise issues and threatens the economic sustainability of downtown Barrington,” said Maher, seated in his back garden. “So far, I haven’t seen CN commit to any way to mitigate the problems this will create.”
CN says Chicago’s rail congestion is so bad that it takes as long for CN trains to cross 30 miles of the city’s network as it does to travel more than 800 miles from Winnipeg.
But the stiff local opposition to the CN takeover from towns along the EJ&E illustrates a national problem.
In 2007 the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) estimated that U.S. truck freight will double by 2035 and rail freight double by 2040.
AASHTO said that, aside from massive investments in the creaking U.S. highway system, $195 billion is needed for new rails over the next 20 years — $53 billion from taxpayers.
But when railroads plan track expansion, they often meet opposition from residents like Maher who object to the noise, nuisance and other problems brought by increased rail traffic.
CN estimates that after the acquisition 20 trains a day would use the EJ&E, which traverses the heart of Barrington.
But dozens of red, white and blue placards are still posted around the town to loudly protest “CN Rail Congestion.”
Local officials argue that because the EJ&E crosses three busy roads in town in under a mile, the best solution may be to put the track in a trench under the road.
“Unless CN addresses this problem, we cannot support their plans,” said Barrington village president Karen Darch.
CN says it is willing to spend $40 million to ease the impact of the extra trains along the EJ&E, on top of $300 million it would pay for the line and $100 million for track upgrades. But it says putting the track below ground would cost far more than that and would require government funding.
“Their goal is to kill this transaction entirely,” said CN vice president Karen Phillips of Barrington’s opposition. “This is a microcosm of a broader national problem.”
Frustrations with such local issues have railroads looking to the federal government for action. CN’s EJ&E acquisition, announced last September, is now under review by the U.S. regulator, the Surface Transportation Board (STB).
But CN’s rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. also plans to buy the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E).
That line passes near the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which has long fought plans by the DM&E to expand service to the massive coal fields of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB), citing safety concerns.
Mayo Clinic Chief Executive Glenn Forbes said the clinic has had “positive dialogue” with Canadian Pacific, but added: “We have not yet seen any meaningful movement” from CP on mitigating the impact of trains.
As in Barrington, the clinic has suggested putting the track below ground as a potential solution.
Canadian Pacific spokesman Mark Seland said CP doesn’t yet know if it will expand the DM&E line to Wyoming. He said CP is “committed to ongoing dialogue” with the Mayo Clinic” but added that a below-ground track would be very expensive.
Railroads say all expansion plans meet local opposition.
Matt Rose, chief executive of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (BNI.N: Quote, Profile, Research), said local opposition translates into higher legal and mitigation costs plus lengthy delays, even when the railroad owns all the property in question.
“We need to find a balance here,” Rose said.
Tom Mentzer, a logistics expert at the University of Tennessee, said railroad expansion “cannot be solved either by local communities or the railroads.”
“What we need is for the U.S. leadership to step up and start making tough decisions on infrastructure,” he said.
Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin said infrastructure must be a priority for the next U.S. president.
“If we can’t move goods or can only move them slowly, this will harm the economy,” she said. “We need a national plan with an integrated approach, or nothing will happen.”