(The following story by Guy Tridgell of The Southtown Star appeared on the Suburban Chicago News website on February 22.)
CHICAGO — The plans call for beefing up aging railroad tracks that run past quaint neighborhoods, through thriving subdivisions or historic downtowns. And once the work is finished, the number of trains running on the old line will jump from about five a day to at least 40.
The communities along the tracks protest, saying they will be cut in half by the constant back and forth of trains. Traffic on local roads is going to be reduced to a standstill, they complain, with marooned police cars, fire trucks and ambulances unable to reach their destinations thanks to blocked crossings.
Residents say the din will destroy their quality of life, the rumbling locomotives damaging their houses and ruining their property values.
To the communities along the EJ&E Railroad, places such as Aurora and Naperville, from Joliet up to Elgin, the circumstances should sound familiar.
But the towns that dot another rail line — the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming — already have lived through this conflict. The lesson learned: Once the railroads are set on how they want to use their trains and tracks, little can be done to stop them.
That’s not a surprise. No expansion plans or merger applications put before the Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency that regulates railroads, have been rejected in recent memory, according to industry officials.
Ken Brown, an Olmsted County commissioner in Rochester, Minn., said his community’s arguments to block a huge increase in trains on the DM&E did little to sway the three members on the board.
“We never, ever got a fair hearing,” Brown said. “It was pretty disappointing, frankly.”
The Surface Transportation Board is just starting its review of the proposed sale of the EJ&E to Canadian National Railway for $300 million. The sale will pave the way for Canadian National to route trains on its tracks radiating from Chicago to the EJ&E tracks on the outskirts of the area.
The plans are drawing the ire of suburbs on the EJ&E who fear they will become overrun with trains.
In the case of the DM&E, the federal board in 2001 authorized the railroad’s plans to build almost 300 miles of new track and repair about 600 miles of existing track in several northern states to connect to the Powder River Basin coal fields in Wyoming. The approval came despite protests from several communities, including Rochester, home to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic.
Brown said Rochester asked the board to demand that DM&E build a minimum of four overpasses or underpasses so vehicle traffic would not intersect with the rail line. But the board elected to require the railroad to build just one, with local dollars contributing to the costs.
The DM&E project remains on hold while the railroad tries to finance construction.
Brown passed along a piece of advice for the EJ&E towns.
“Use every possible thing at your disposal to shine a light on what’s happening,” he said. “Then try not to get run over by the trains.”
Industry officials said the Surface Transportation Board gives preference to the railroads because its primary mission is to look out for interstate commerce. Local transportation issues are not weighed as heavily, officials said.
Canadian National spokesman Jim Kvedaras said the board turned down a request from the railroads just once in recent years. Canadian National and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway wanted to merge in 2001, but the board blocked the move for two years because of the potential competitive impact to other railroads.
“That’s as close to a denial as we could find,” Kvedaras said.