New Lenox Rail Sense

July 31, 2009 / By Chad Brooks / Daily HeraldRepresentatives of Canadian National will not be answering questions about its proposed purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co. before members of the Illinois Congressional delegation Tuesday. In a letter to U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean this week, CN President and CEO E. Hunter Harrison said the CN declined the invitation to appear at Tuesday’s public hearing in Chicago because of the group’s unwillingness to consider the benefits of the deal.

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July 30, 2008 By ANDRE SALLES / Aurora Beacon News

If Canadian National Railway Company ends up buying the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern rail line, some expensive work at some of the busier crossings will likely be required.

But those upgrades may cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to complete, according to local communities along the line.  And no one is quite sure who will pay for the work.

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July 30, 2008 / Company Press Release

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - CN (TSX:CNR) (NYSE:CNI) said today that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) issued on July 25, 2008, by the Section of Environmental Analysis (SEA) of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on the company’s proposed acquisition of the principal lines of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E) is an important step in the regulatory process. The DEIS outlines the environmental effects of the transaction on local communities and potential mitigation. The agency established a 60-day period for public comments on the DEIS, including eight public hearings, which will be followed by SEA’s preparation of the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and a final regulatory decision by the STB.

July 30, 2008 / By Erik Potter / Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune

Five Illinois members of Congress will hold an ad hoc hearing in Chicago on Tuesday to look into Canadian National’s proposed purchase of the EJ&E Railroad.

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July 30, 2008 / By Marni Pyke / Daily Herald

On second thought, the Canadian National Railway isn’t thrilled with a report by federal regulators on its request to purchase the EJ&E railroad.

CN issued a short statement saying it believed the report conformed to its view that the issues raised by the merger weren’t unusual. But Tuesday, the company’s CEO Hunter Harrison went further, saying he was disappointed by the federal board’s analysis, suggesting staff was using questionable standards for deciding what crossings would benefit by grade separations, one of the most expensive ways of remedying safety concerns.

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July 28, 2008 / By David Schaper / National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” [link contains audio]

A “calamity,” a “rail meltdown” and “chaos in the supply chain” - those are all ways transportation experts and executives describe the state of railroad congestion in Chicago. “And it’s only going to get worse,” adds another.

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July 26, 2008 / By Richard Wronski / Chicago Tribune

A federal report on Friday raised the specter of frustrated motorists facing lengthy delays at 15 rail crossings in a dozen communities, but concluded that passenger service would not be impaired if a railroad that winds through Chicago’s suburbs is sold. The long-awaited report also identifies 10 communities-among them Barrington, Joliet, Mundelein and Chicago Heights-where a tripling or quadrupling of freight traffic would severely hamper police, fire and emergency medical response.

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July 26, 2008 / By Dan Campana / Plainfield Sun

The expensive proposition of separating roads from rail crossings is the likely way to combat “a substantial increase” in freight train traffic from the Canadian National Railway’s purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern rail line, a federal report released Friday states. But it would appear to fall to government, not the railroad to bear most of that cost, according to the report by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

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On Friday, July 25, the Surface Transportation Board release STB Finance Docket No. 35087, Canadian National Railway Company and Grand Trunk Corporation - Control - EJ&E West Company; Issuance of Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Here is the opening paragraph of the document:

“The Section of Environmental Analysis (SEA) is pleased to provide you with your copy of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad by Canadian National Railway and Grand Trunk Corporation (Applicants). This Draft EIS analyzes the environmental impacts that might occur if the Applicants were to acquire and operate trains over the EJ&E Railroad, an approximately 200-mile long railroad that forms an arc from the northwest to the southeast suburbs of Chicago, approximately 40 miles outside the city. The potential environmental impacts to both the human and the natural environments that could result from the proposed acquisition are compared to the environmental impacts of continuing rail operations on the EJ&E rail line and the five CN rail lines that feed into Chicago.”

Click here to download the complete study directly from the STB’s Web site.

July 25, 2008 / By Dan Campana / Aurora Beacon News

A federal report released today on Canadian National’s proposed purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway indicates a number of issues to be addressed, but nothing that would appear to kill the deal.

With traffic a main point of concern, the Surface Transportation Board targeted 15 train crossings on EJ&E’s 198-mile line, from northwest Indiana to Chicago’s northern suburbs, as needing train tracks and roads to be separated. Included on that list were three in Aurora - Liberty Street, Ogden Avenue and Montgomery Road. However, the report states CN should not be required to pick up the entire tab to make those improvements.

Read the complete article   /   Read the STB study