Ambi: Train sounds

If you boarded this train in Waukegan, you could ride it round that half circle through places like Lake Zurich and Barrington, Streamwood and Joliet, before heading toward Griffith, Indiana and then onto the industrial meca of Gary.
 
DARCH: In our community, it is so lightly used that a lot of people did not know which train tracks we were talking about for along time. Therefore, we had to go out with a map and say here it is and people say, ‘Oh yea, I’ve noticed those tracks.’
 
That’s Karen Darch, president of the village board in Barrington. She’s talking about the Elgin Joliet and Eastern railroad line. She’s worried because in about a month, it’s going to become a major headache for several municipalities.
 
DARCH: Currently, I think we actually see about three a day. They are going to have that number at 20 trains a day.
 
Darch says people in her town aren’t used to having many trains two-miles long rumbling through town.
 
DARCH: Some of the trains could be 10 or 12,000 feet long, double stacked, but the length of the train really would cover all of the crossings in town. So, it is a huge significant issue.
 
The reason: Montreal-based Canadian National, known as CN, finalized its deal to purchase the EJ&E line from U.S. Steel for $300 million this week.
 
After much discussion last fall, some of it heated, the federal Surface Transportation Board approved CN’s deal to buy the line despite outcry from suburban areas like Barrington that the deal will mean more train traffic.
 
Darch worries about the trains stalling traffic on Hough Road and at another nearby major crossing on Northwest Highway.

Although the deal is done, Darch says Barrington is not ready to give up the fight. It’s teaming up with eight other suburbs, from Aurora to Richton Park, to fight CN’s efforts.  

The group even has a name: The Regional Answer to Canadian National, short for TRAC.

LAWRENCE: You know, you want to destroy a small community. You talk about economic stimulus, throw this project into our city, you’ve just destroyed our economy. Financially, it could really hurt us.
  
Rick Lawrence, an alderman in the city of Aurora, says the city could see a CN train every half hour.
 
That, he says, could have devastating consequences as Aurora continues to revitalize its downtown and build on its successes. He doesn’t want to see the city head back to the days when manufacturing began leaving the city in the 70s.
  
Take a tour of Aurora with Rick Lawrence and he’ll show you two crossings that will cause traffic delays with increases in trains.
 
But a third one, heavily used Ogden Avenue, will be especially difficult to navigate, especially for fire, police and paramedics.
 
LAWRENCE: We do have a hospital on Ogden Avenue. We have fire equipment on one side. You also have Fox Valley Mall on the other side of the tracks, our police station on this side of the tracks. It will impact a lot of fire safety. It will impact our police department. It also cuts off access to hospitals to certain people.
 
Lawrence says CN has offered to help pay for an either an overpass or underpass on Ogden Avenue, but the city may not have the ability to pay for its share. And, it does nothing to address two other crossings in the city.  
 
Jim Kvedaras is senior manager of U.S. public and government affairs for CN.  He says the purchase of the EJ&E simply allows it to better utilize an underused rail line to reduce train congestion.
 
KVEDARAS: Railroad transportation is a building block of the economy. All the business and industries that have use for rail, especially those that come through Chicago, which is widely recognized as the transportation hub of North America.
 
He says twice has many communities will see less train traffic than the number that will see an increase.
 
Kvedaras continues.

KVEDARAS: If we can take upwards of a half day or better off the transit time coming through the Chicago region, that is clear, identifiable benefit to those customers.
 
Researcher Joseph DiJohn agrees.
 
DIJOHN: I think it’s definitely worth it to the region to reduce congestion which not only impacts our economy but it also impacts our commute.
 
DiJohn heads the Metropolitan Transportation Support Initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

DIJOHN: If I can draw an analogy. It’s like what O’Hare is to air traffic. When there is a delay at O’Hare, it impacts the entire country. Well, when there is congestion and delays in Chicago, it impacts the entire U.S. rail traffic by causing backups and delays. Where they operate now in the more central city, is higher density areas and higher density roadway traffic. By moving into the lighter density suburbs with lighter traffic, it reduces congestion in some areas but adds it in lighter density areas. But on the net impact on the region, it’s a benefit. 
 
In Aurora, Alderman Rick Lawrence knows the CN deal helps Chicago.
 
LAWRENCE: If this benefits the quality of life in Chicago, well, maybe Chicago needs to throw in some money in there since we’ve bailed them out on their CTA debacle.
 
CN has offered some communities money to help deal with the increase in train traffic and Griffith, Indiana for one has come to a mitigating agreement with the railroad. 

But others have rejected it. 

CN will have to spend nearly $100 million to help affected communities deal with more trains over the next few years, as required by the federal Surface Transportation Board.

But communities like Barrington and Aurora are holding out hope that legal pressure may force the STB to rethink its decision.