New Lenox Rail Sense

March 26, 2008 / By Patrick Ferrell Staff Writer / Joliet Herald News

NEW LENOX — The village board on Monday authorized yet another study aimed at fighting Canadian National’s proposed purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.

Trustees approved a $7,000 contract with Hoffman Estates-based Metro Transportation Group to develop traffic projection for 2030 on five key north-south roads that intersect with the EJ&E tracks.

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March 26, 2008 / By STEWART WARREN STAFF WRITER / Joliet Herald News

JOLIET — The Will County Board is against the Canadian National Railway’s purchase of the Elgin Joliet and Eastern Railway. And they want everyone to know it.

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Press Release / March 20, 2008 

The Will County Board passed Resolution #08-123 (on Thursday, March 20) opposing the Canadian National Railway’s proposed acquisition of the EJ&E, and urging the Surface Transportation Board to deny the CN application.

James Moustis, Will County Board Chairman, said: ”This is one of many local governmental resolutions that has been or will be passed in opposition to a transaction that because of its security, safety, environmental and transportation impacts will cause irreparable harm to our County and the region. I, personally, and the Will County Board look forward to working with [the Village of New Lenox] to oppose and defeat the pending application of the Canadian National Railway Company to purchase the EJ&E.”

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March 23, 2008 / By Richard Wronski / Chicago Tribune

Metra and the Canadian National Railway Co. are at loggerheads over the railroad’s $400 million plan to divert freight traffic around Chicago, a proposal that also puts suburbs at odds with each other and with the City of Chicago over train congestion and blocked railroad crossings.

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March 20, 2008 / By Guy Tridgell / sun-times news group

FRANKFORT — If Frankfort wants to avoid a dramatic increase in train traffic through the heart of town, the community that boasts of its 1890s charm needs to prepare for a fight, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Wednesday.

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March 11, 2008 / By Richard Wronski / Chicago Tribune

The Canadian National Railway Co. is offering to spend $40 million for overpasses in suburban areas facing major increases in freight train traffic under its plan to bypass congestion in Chicago, the railroad said Monday.

The CN also pledged to cap Amtrak’s costs for the use of CN tracks, which the railroad said should calm fears that passenger service south to Springfield, Carbondale and other Illinois cities would be jeopardized by buying the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.

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March 10, 2008 / BY PAIGE WINFIELD / The Courier News

As DuPage County officials anticipate more traffic congestion after the likely sale of the EJ&E railroad, they hope some federal dollars can at least soften the blow.

County board members Jim Healy of Naperville and Pam Rion of Bloomingdale met with nearly 100 other local officials from the collar counties and Indiana on Friday to discuss the possible purchase of the rail line by Canadian National Railroad. Currently under review by the Surface Transportation Board, the sale would result in up to a 400 percent increase in rail traffic in the region.

In DuPage County, 21 grade crossings would be affected by the sale. Members of the county’s legislative committee hope that at least some of those crossings can be separated, using federal money obtained with the help of a new lobbyist.

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March 10, 2008 / Dennis Byrne / Chicago Tribune

If dozens of freight trains were blasting through your neighborhood every day, you’d probably complain too.

And so, folks in a ring of outer suburbs, from Waukegan, down through Barrington, Elgin and Joliet, and over to Gary, are beefing about a proposal to turn an underused railroad bypass around Chicago into something of a freight superhighway. But in the usual game of winners and losers, Chicago and inner suburbs are cheering because they see the plan as deliverance from the same trains that now rumble through their neighborhoods.

The project also has broader implications for the region’s economic health and its pre-eminence as the nation’s transportation hub. This could turn into a contentious and important regional fight.

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March 7, 2008 / By KATHY CICHON / The Herald News

WHEATON — Forest Preserve District of DuPage County officials affirmed their position on the sale of land to Canadian National Railway on Tuesday, authorizing the president to send a letter declining any further discussions for a 1-acre site in Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve.

“I think I speak for all the commissioners here, that we’ve been pretty persistent that … the forest preserve is not a land bank for anyone. It’s not a land bank for the school district, municipalities and certainly not the railroad,” President D. “Dewey” Pierotti Jr. said. “In this case, No. 1, we can’t sell if we wanted to, and No. 2, they can’t condemn us.”

Both actions, forest officials said, are prohibited by law.

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March 7, 2008 / By Gina Kenny / The Herald News

NEW LENOX — About 50 people attended a town hall meeting to protest the proposed acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway by the Canadian National Railway.

Considering the EJ&J tracks cross five different main arterials in the village, it is not surprising that residents in attendance were almost universally in opposition to the acquisition.

One resident, a retired engineer from Canadian National, said he “disagreed with almost everything” presented at the meeting. “I am all for them going through (with the acquisition), but build overpasses,” he said.

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