On Dec. 24, 2008, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) approved a railroad transaction that is likely to affect Hyde Park and neighboring communities. The ruling allows the Canadian National Railway (CN) to acquire the Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway (EJ&E). The merger was made official Jan. 31, 2009. A number of suburbs are still contesting the ruling, but the decision most probably will stand.
Canadian National is the freight line that runs adjacent to Metra Electric. The CN and Metra share the right-of-way, but there is an ownership boundary between them. The CN-EJ&E merger will not impact the commuter service.
A 50-words-or-less history: Long time residents will remember the entire railroad as the Illinois Central (IC). Until 1987, IC owned and operated the electric commuter trains and tracks; in that year, Metra purchased IC’s commuter service. In 1998, CN acquired the IC freight railroad.
The EJ&E is a belt line that arcs around Chicago. CN plans to route most of its freight trains via that line, rather than through Chicago’s rail-congested center. This won’t fully happen tomorrow, because CN has to build $100 million in capacity improvements and voluntary environmental measures along the EJ&E, plus about another hundred million in environmental mitigation measures negotiated with ten suburbs or ordered by the STB as a condition of its approval.
CN’s operating plan says—and this may take a couple, or more, years—after the merger, there will be zero freight traffic on a number of lines. Their lakefront line, through Hyde Park, is one of those lines. Amtrak trains would remain until money is found to build new connections for them. Eventually, the CN is likely to abandon the lakefront line between 94th St. and 16th St., thence to some point on the West Side.
That leaves the question: How is it to be decided, in the open, what should be done with the right-of-way? I posed a similar question for the record during the EIS public comment period, and I communicated the issue to the 4th and 5th Ward Aldermen. If nothing else, my comment to the STB was probably unusual, for mostly they received objections from people living along the EJ&E, who fear a potential threefold increase in freight train traffic following the merger.
Abandonment will require a separate STB proceeding and approval, after which the railroad would have no control over the property. It is possible, though, that the railroad would reach an agreement, or sale, prior to, or as part of, the abandonment proceedings.
My immediate purpose for this post is not to propose any possible alternative use(s) of the right-of-way, nor to object to any. (I will let my opinions be known in the blog comments and other discussions.) In the U.S., the problem in not new, nor is it unique to Hyde Park or Chicago. Right now, I just want to say that the issue is a real one for our community, and that it is better to plan ahead than to be surprised.
The CN-EJ&E proceeding is in STB Finance Docket No. 35087.
