Comment EI-4695
Received or sent (printed as 1/29/2008)
I am writing on behalf of myself, my husband, and my mother and sister. We all live at 1300 Mallard Lane in the Winding Trails Subdivision of Hoffman Estates, IL. It's a new subdivision of 42 homes. We purchased the home as new construction, a dream of mine for a long time, and have lived there less than 4 years. The purchase price of our home was almost a half a million dollars. This is in reference to the Canadian National Purchase of EJ&E Railway, which runs just east of our subdivision. Half of the homes in the subdivision abut the tracks. When we purchased our home, we were told by the builder that there were about three freight trains a day that used the rail line, and that there was a possibility of a Metra train using the line in the future. Now we are told that the freight trains may increase to 25 per day, more than one per hour. My first concern is for security. Why would we want another country to own a rail line, part of the United States infrastructure? My second concern is for emergency vehicles. I had an aneurysm last April, requiring an ambulance. If it wasn’t able to cross the tracks due to freight traffic, I may not be here today to write this letter. Additionally, the roads around our subdivision are all one lane in each direction. If there is an accident that blocks Golf Road for instance, which happens on a regular basis, and a train is blocking Shoe Factory Road, which is at at-grade crossing, it will require drivers to go miles out of their way to get past the tracks, because just east of the tracks are four miles of forest preserves. On a more personal level, the noise from the very early morning train wakes us before we need to get up for work, and the vibration is very noticeable when you are in bed. More trains will keep us awake at night, and the vibration may damage the structure of our homes. This is in addition to not being able to enjoy our outdoor space. One of the reasons we purchased this home was because it is nestled in between the forest preserve to the east and a creek and tree line to the west, isolating us from the subdivision west of us. We have spent over $50,000 on our fence, decks and landscaping around our home, and will not be able to fully enjoy our back yard with our dogs if the freight traffic increases as proposed. What will this do to our property values? We already pay almost $12,000 in property taxes every year. I am also concerned about hazardous waste. My husband and I are still working, but my mother and sister are retired, and home during the day. My mother doesn’t drive. If something were to happen, and with 25 trains a day there are many more chances of something happening, my mother could not get out of the subdivision if my sister wasn’t home. How old are the tracks? How safe are they? And what if 25 trains per day become 35? What if Canadian National Railway wants to put in another track, or two more tracks? Please consider all the above concerns before making any decision on this purchase. Thank you. Karen Roth
Submitted by: Karen Roth · Chicago, 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-4695 · back to the docket sheet