Comment EI-12489
Received or sent (printed as 9/23/2008)
I am writing to support the proposed purchase of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad by the Canadian National Railway, and to support CN's plans to improve the efficiency of our national rail network by using the EJ&E to route more traffic around and not through the congested Chicago urban area. I believe that the effects of increased EJ&E rail traffic on the quality of life in outlying suburbs have been overstated. Even with the planned increases in train frequency, these areas will see far less rail activity than near suburbs like mine have experienced daily for generations. The economic benefits of improved rail traffic flow resulting from the CN/EJ&E purchase are well known. Indeed, routing national rail traffic around and not through urban Chicago has been an industry goal for over a century. There has been much news coverage of the anti-CN/EJ&E sentiments of our wealthy and media-savvy neighbors in some of EJ&E's lineside communities. Please do not mistake the volume of this comment for majority sentiment. While the near suburbs will enjoy some reduction in train frequency on CN's existing lines to urban Chicago, the chief benefit of CN's purchase of the EJ&E will be in improvement in national rail system efficiency. This will benefit not only all of the people of this region, from Barrington to Berwyn, but the national economy as well. Please approve the CN's purchase of, and future traffic plans for, the EJ&E.
Submitted by: James G. Marciniak · Riverside, IL
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-35087/comment/EI-12489 · back to the docket sheet