New Lenox Rail Sense

December 25, 2008 / By Richard Wronski / Chicago Tribune

Trains may triple in many suburbs

Federal regulators have given a green light to Canadian National Railway’s plan to divert freight traffic through Chicago’s suburbs, a possible boon for the economy but potentially bad news for many suburban motorists likely to encounter delays at blocked crossings. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board unanimously approved on Wednesday CN’s $300 million purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway. But in response to critics, the board imposed an unprecedented condition: CN must pay tens of millions of dollars to build two overpasses in Aurora and Lynwood.

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December 22, 2008 / By ALEX ROTH / The Wall Street Journal

CHICAGO — It seemed like a common-sense transaction when Canadian National Railway Co. signed a deal with U.S. Steel Corp. to buy a suburban rail line, seeking to reroute its freight trains around the worst railroad bottleneck in the country. But the big Canadian rail company didn’t anticipate the collision that would follow.

When wealthy neighborhoods along the line learned more trains would be rolling through their suburbs, they were suddenly up in arms, hiring lawyers and publicists to fight the plan. Some inner-city communities, plagued for decades by the ever-present rumbling of rail cars and locomotives, hailed the proposal as a way to ease congestion in their neighborhoods.

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December 21, 2008 / From Submitted Reports / Joliet Herald News

Canadian National Railway reached an agreement with Griffith, Ind., addressing the community’s concerns about CN’s proposed purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co.

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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 12, 2008 / By Marni Pyke / Daily Herald Staff

It’s not a collision course yet, but Metra leaders are wary of the Canadian National Railway’s plans to purchase the EJ&E railroad.

CN’s decision last fall to buy the line used for freight trains between Gary and Waukegan has drawn passionate opposition as well as support among politicians, the railroad industry and towns along 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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