Comment EI-14223
Received or sent (printed as 9/30/2008)
From a safety issue alone this proposal is bad for the region. This acquisition need significant mitigation requirements. The towns where CN is proposing the increase of train traffic are not equipped to handle the proposed train traffic. Please require CN to pay for the mitigation. If you don’t, the railroads will continue to have the ability to secure increased profit margins at the expense of the communities in which they operate and ultimately all Americans. Absent adequate mitigation funding by CN, the American taxpayer will be faced with paying billions of dollars to clean up CN's one sided, ill conceived plan. We need you, the STB, to require CN to pay for the use of our American resources. Please be aware of CN’s business practices in Canada. They have not been responsive to communities once they have control of the tracks. Here’s one example of their lack of responsiveness. ---For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Wabamun disaster, a November 29, 2007 Globe & Mail article summarized CN's lack of responsiveness in cleaning up this hazmat spill: CN still faces charges from Alberta's Environment Ministry that it failed to act properly to confine the spill.” In Wabamun, bitterness lingers still. "They were more interested in getting the trains on the tracks than repairing any of the damage they'd done to the environment," says Bill Van Rassel, a hardware store owner who lives on the shore of Lake Wabamun, about three kilometres from where the train jumped the tracks. It was CN's response, not the derailment itself, that really hurt the company's reputation. Within 48 hours, the trains were moving again, yet lakeside residents were still being told little; they'd been stood up by a CN official who had promised to meet with them, according to members of a local residents' committee. "They were pretty arrogant," says Van Rassel."--- The Canadians affected by the accident had to file a lawsuit to get remediation. CN also has questionable employee business practices. As shown by a $250-million class action lawsuit in against Canadian National, alleging the railway misclassified more than 1,000 supervisors as managers to avoid having to pay them overtime. CN has shown a well documented lack of concern for the communities they run their trains through. They can not be trusted to “do the right thing”. If you, the STB, approve this deal, please require them to mitigate BEFORE they can increase the train traffic in the suburban areas. Thank you for your time and in depth review of this matter."
Submitted by: Virginia D. Scott
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-14223 · back to the docket sheet