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Sale study will project train traffic out to 2015
EJ&E sale Panel should make preliminary ruling early this summer
The Surface Transportation Board compromised Friday with the announcement that forecasts for train traffic in 2015 will be used when its members rule on the proposed Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway Co. sale later this year.
Canadian National Railway, the Montreal company that wants to buy the 198 miles of EJ&E track encircling the Chicago area, was pushing the STB to use 2012 figures.
Frankfort village administrator Jerry Ducay said he was hoping that forecasts for rail traffic during the next 25 years would be weighed.
"We should be entitled to the longer timeframe," Ducay said. "Without it, I wonder if we can truly measure the impacts appropriately."
The new criteria were included Friday in a STB report outlining the potential impacts that will be studied during its environmental analysis of CN's plans to increase the number of trains on the EJ&E.
The report can be viewed at www.stb.dot.gov.
At a cost of $300 million, CN wants to buy the EJ&E tracks to divert trains moving in and out of Chicago on gridlocked rail lines.
But the plans are meeting fierce opposition in suburbs with EJ&E crossings, such as New Lenox, Mokena, Frankfort, Matteson and Park Forest.
The STB, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, will have the final say in whether the sale of the EJ&E is permitted. The three-member panel is expected to issue a preliminary ruling on the sale early this summer.
CN spokesman Jim Kvedaras declined to comment on the report, saying the company still was in the process of reading it.
Guy Tridgell can be reached at gtridgell@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5970.
2 comments on Chicago Suburban Train: Study will project Train Traffic out to 2015
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I used to ride that train back int he day. Seems to me a canadian company should not own the chigao northwestern, what would their "real" interest " be?
They need to expand the cargo lines. It is a very necessary means of transporting cargo to the industrial areas. As it was explained to me (a friend works for CN), this will help free of conjestion elsewhere. THere are some spots where one can get stopped at a cargo train track for nearly 30 minutes. Because of the Industrial nature of this reagion, there is a high use for cargo and because there are not enough rail lines, the trains are getting longer and longer and really screwing up traffic. This is supposed to help allieviate all that.