New Lenox Rail Sense

August 20, 2008 / By KATHY CICHON / Naperville Sun

WHEATON — The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County says it will work with Canadian National Railway should a deal to buy the EJ&E tracks go through.

By Gary Gibula / June 26, 2008 / Chicago Tribune

Proposed merger could quadruple freight-train traffic in collar county communities

Federal Surface Transportation Board officials toured Chicago suburbs this week to gauge how people and services could be disrupted by Canadian National Railway’s plan to buy 198 miles of area track, a move expected to quadruple freight traffic.

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April 21, 2008 / By Susan DeMar Lafferty / Chicago Sun-Times news

As the municipal Davids continue to tackle the Goliath Canadian National Railroad, they are rallying troops and gathering ammunition.

Frankfort, Mokena and New Lenox, initially got together with other Will County communities to discuss the environmental impacts that increased freight trains would cause if the CN is allowed to acquire the EJ&E tracks in this area. They have now been invited to join with towns throughout DuPage, Lake County and Lake County, Indiana, to form a coalition dubbed TRAC–The Regional Answer to Canadian National.

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April 2, 2008 / By Justin Kmitch and Melissa Jenco / Daily Herald

In two separate boardrooms in neighboring communities, allies plotted Tuesday night, and pledged several thousands of dollars to prevent Canadian National’s proposed buy-out of the EJ&E rail line.

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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 3, 2008 / By KATHY CICHON / The Herald News

Forest Preserve District of DuPage County officials are expected to formally notify Canadian National Railway next week that it cannot acquire or use a one-acre parcel of land in Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve in its plans to reroute freight traffic around Chicago.

The proposed sale of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern to Canadian National has raised concerns about increased train traffic in Joliet, Plainfield, New Lenox and other towns along the railroad.

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