(The following story by Guy Tridgell appeared on the Southtown Star website on January 7.)
CHICAGO — The legal opposition to the Canadian National Railway’s plans for the EJ&E Railroad continues to grow.
Will County has filed paperwork with the federal Surface Transportation Board asking the board to suspend its Dec. 24 decision to approve the EJ&E sale to CN until all legal appeals are exhausted.
The filing was done in conjunction with a similar request made Monday by northwest suburban Barrington, said Ed Gower, an attorney hired by Will County.
More legal challenges are expected this week.
New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann said his village plans to take part in a joint lawsuit with other communities in the next few days seeking to block the CN deal. Barrington already has filed its own lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Baldermann pledged to push the case to its bitter end.
“This is going to have a major negative impact to our community,” Baldermann said. “We will take this as far as we have to.”
Running in an arc from Waukegan to Gary, the 198 miles of EJ&E tracks, currently owned by U.S. Steel, are viewed by CN as a reliever for its five congested lines radiating from Chicago. But suburbs along the EJ&E, including Frankfort, Chicago Heights and Matteson, maintain the extra trains on the line will choke their communities by blocking crossings for hours a day.
If CN can close on its $300 million deal with U.S. Steel, the sale becomes final Jan. 23.
In approving CN’s application to buy the EJ&E, the Surface Transportation Board noted that nearly twice as many communities will benefit from the sale as those that will feel negative impacts.
The complaints filed with the board accuse its three members of failing to accurately measure the effects on towns on the EJ&E. They also allege the board did not look at other alternatives to reducing rail congestion in the Chicago area.
A board spokesman declined to comment on the filings.
But Karen Borlaug Phillips, a CN vice president, issued a statement calling the accusations “unfounded.”
“Experts agree the Chicago region needs relief from rail congestion,” Borlaug Phillps said. “The public interest benefits of rerouting traffic off congested lines through the city and inner suburbs onto the underutilized EJ&E are real.”