Comment EI-14067
Received or sent (printed as 9/30/2008)
The EJ&E has a line that runs through the heart of Barrington. If the CN is successful in their bid to buy EL&E, the number of freight trains that would run each day on the EJ&E line would increase from approximately 3 to 5 to 20. In addition, CN plans to permit four additional railroads access to the EJ&E line. This would further increase daily use by freight trains through Barrington. Although it is impossible at this time to estimate the number of freight trains from the other railroads, the 20 CN freight trains take an average of 6 minutes to pass through a single railroad crossing. That means that each railroad crossing would be closed a minimum of 2 hours every day without including the freight traffic from the additional four lines. The gridlock created by just adding 15 more freight trains from CN, at each of the four railroad crossing in the Village, would essentially curtail all vehicular traffic in the Village, impeding school bus movement to and from schools and interrupt ambulance to Good Shepherd Hospital. The delays would eventually destroy the viability and vitality of the community. Given that the Canadian National Railway recently received the lowest grade level possible on implementing safety management systems (SMS) that are designed to offset accidents and other safety hazards. On a scale between one to 5, Five (5) being the optimum level, CN was between a level 1 or 2. According to the report the increase in rail accidents in Canada over the last few years have caused “serious” repercussions in terms of “human fatalities and environmental damage”. The report cited CN for several safety concerns that include failed communication between senior management and frontline workers on clearly defining management’s commitment to safety; limited training for newly hired employees and creating a “culture of fear” for workers with regard to non-punitive reporting on safety violations. It would be disastrous if there was an accident in our area. The environmental impact would be devastating. It is imperative that we do everything in our power to stop this proposed acquisition.
Submitted by: Patricia Karon · Barrington, 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-14067 · back to the docket sheet