Canadian National Railway has won federal approval for its controversial purchase of a line that would loop freight trains around Chicago, a bypass that some suburban communities fear will cause massive traffic problems.
Proposed 15 months ago, CN and its supporters say the deal would boost the Chicago-area economy by $60 million a year, creating hundreds of jobs and easing train gridlock. (MAP)
The current system of 2,800 miles of crisscrossing railroad track creates bottlenecks across Chicago. Supporters say the project would shift freight traffic away from the city by looping it in a 198-mile arc through the outer suburbs on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
But many of those suburbs fear that the number of trains through their communities would triple or quadruple, blocking crossings for longer periods and tying up road traffic.
CN has offered to pay $300 million to U.S. Steel for the EJ&E, $100 million to upgrade the line and another $60 million to help local communities deal with the traffic impact along the route.
As a condition of its approval, the transportation board will require CN to pay the bulk of the cost of constructing two highway-rail grade separation projects. This will cost the railroad tens of millions of dollars more than originally estimated. One overpass or underpass would be at Ogden Avenue (Route 34) in Aurora and the other at Lincoln Highway (Route 30) in Lynwood.
Studies have said that 80 communities would have fewer trains, and 34 communities would have more.
Earlier this month, a federal environmental-impact report recommended just a few conditions on the deal.
Among the report's conclusions:
*Suburbs along the EJ&E would experience "adverse impacts," including vehicle traffic delays, increased noise and air emissions and shipments of hazardous materials. However, these problems would decrease in towns inside the EJ&E arc.
*Grade separations--overpasses or underpasses--should be built at two rail-highway crossings: Ogden Avenue in Aurora and Lincoln Highway in Lynwood.
*CN should be required to pay 15 percent of the cost of the grade separations. CN has offered to pay only 5 percent.
*The acquisition "would not have a substantial adverse effect" on Metra's plans to build a suburb-to-suburb STAR line. The plan could benefit South Shore Railway expansion.
So far, CN has reached agreements to minimize the impact in Joliet, Crest Hill, Mundelein and Chicago Heights in Illinois, and Dyer and Schererville in Indiana.
CN went to court in September seeking to force the transportation board to hasten its decision so the railroad could close the deal for the before a Dec. 31 deadline, but that request was rejected.
-- Richard Wronski
