Post by title1parent on Oct 28, 2009 5:23:43 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1849926,2_1_AU28_EJE_S1-091028.article
STB agrees to widen its oversight of EJ&E deal
October 28, 2009
By ANDRE SALLES asalles@scn1.com
The federal Surface Transportation Board has agreed to widen its oversight of Canadian National Railway Company's purchase of the suburban Elgin, Joliet and Eastern rail line.
But while opponents of the deal are calling last week's decision a "partial victory," railroad officials say the STB's scope will be only slightly wider under the new guidelines.
The village of Barrington, along with other suburban communities in The Regional Answer to Canadian National (TRAC), had asked the STB to reopen the case after CN filed 17 different trackage rights exemptions in August. Those exemptions, CN officials said, would simply allow employees of one rail line owned by CN to work on another and would not be used to increase the number of trains on the EJ&E.
But opponents of the sale, fearful of CN's plan to quadruple the number of trains barreling down some suburban tracks, say those trackage rights agreements would give the railroad the right to add even more trains down the road. CN plans to divert freight trains from the crowded Chicago transportation hub onto the EJ&E line, a process that will take three years to complete.
In a decision handed down last Friday, the STB added those 17 agreements to its oversight, demanding that CN include activity on those tracks in its monthly reports. However, the board said TRAC and Barrington had "failed to show that a broader reopening of the approval decision is warranted" and said the trackage rights don't cast doubt on CN's stated plans for the EJ&E.
Patrick Waldron, spokesman for CN, said most of the tracks covered by the new agreements were already included in the railroad's monthly reports to the STB.
"There are 62 segments (of track) that we already report on monthly. They've asked us to add one," Waldron said, adding that the one track is a four-mile segment outside the EJ&E arc.
But Carie Anne Ergo, assistant chief of staff to Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, said she expected CN to downplay the STB decision, and the impact would be significant.
"This was an area they did not want to have to report on, and it affects thousands of people," she said. "We've consistently seen Canadian National underestimating the impact of the decision to run additional trains on this line."
STB agrees to widen its oversight of EJ&E deal
October 28, 2009
By ANDRE SALLES asalles@scn1.com
The federal Surface Transportation Board has agreed to widen its oversight of Canadian National Railway Company's purchase of the suburban Elgin, Joliet and Eastern rail line.
But while opponents of the deal are calling last week's decision a "partial victory," railroad officials say the STB's scope will be only slightly wider under the new guidelines.
The village of Barrington, along with other suburban communities in The Regional Answer to Canadian National (TRAC), had asked the STB to reopen the case after CN filed 17 different trackage rights exemptions in August. Those exemptions, CN officials said, would simply allow employees of one rail line owned by CN to work on another and would not be used to increase the number of trains on the EJ&E.
But opponents of the sale, fearful of CN's plan to quadruple the number of trains barreling down some suburban tracks, say those trackage rights agreements would give the railroad the right to add even more trains down the road. CN plans to divert freight trains from the crowded Chicago transportation hub onto the EJ&E line, a process that will take three years to complete.
In a decision handed down last Friday, the STB added those 17 agreements to its oversight, demanding that CN include activity on those tracks in its monthly reports. However, the board said TRAC and Barrington had "failed to show that a broader reopening of the approval decision is warranted" and said the trackage rights don't cast doubt on CN's stated plans for the EJ&E.
Patrick Waldron, spokesman for CN, said most of the tracks covered by the new agreements were already included in the railroad's monthly reports to the STB.
"There are 62 segments (of track) that we already report on monthly. They've asked us to add one," Waldron said, adding that the one track is a four-mile segment outside the EJ&E arc.
But Carie Anne Ergo, assistant chief of staff to Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, said she expected CN to downplay the STB decision, and the impact would be significant.
"This was an area they did not want to have to report on, and it affects thousands of people," she said. "We've consistently seen Canadian National underestimating the impact of the decision to run additional trains on this line."