Comment EI-4728
Received or sent (printed as 1/30/2008)
I appreciate the opportunity to express my thoughts concerning the CNN Acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway by The Canadian National Railway. We live in a beautiful community surrounded by horse farms and forest preserves in Barrington Hills, Illinois. Down-town Barrington is seven miles away. It is the hub of our daily lives, and driven to and through a number of times each day. Our day begins at 06:40 A.M. when we travel Lake Cook Rd. East to Barrington High School to drop off our grandson who is a freshman there. We leave there and travel East on Lake Cook, crossing the E.J. & E. railway grade crossing, to the Northwestern Railroad Station, dropping off our Daughter, and on to the Prairy Middle School for our middle grandson, and home. This routeen is duplicated in the afternoon beginning at 1:30 P.M. We shop at the Jewel Store on Lake Cook Rd. and frequent the Post Office on a daily basis. We got a taste of what it would be like to be blocked by a train a short while ago. The gates were down erroniously. Getting our grandson to the High School that morning took an extra 15 minutes, our next stop at the NW Station was delayed another 20 minutes as we couldn't get out of the Barring High School parking lot. The second Grandson's arrival at Prairy Middle School was 35 minutes late. There are a large number of high school students who walk to school from East of the E. J. & E. grade crossing that we pass everyday. At that age they think they are invincible and some are going to take chances that are going to create a heartache that doesn't go away. On Wednesday afternoon at 04:30 P.M. we travel again down Lake Cook Road, accross the grade crossing and through Barrington on way to soccer practice at Kitts in Lake Zurich. At 6:30 P.M. we return,traveling west on Lake Cook Road into Barrington to the Northwestern Train Station to pick up our daughter and continue West over the grade crossing to Bateman and on home. With three grandson's playing soccer, this routine is multiplied. We came to Barrington from Glenview nine years ago. Our families lived at 1504,1526, and 1530 Greenwood Road, between West Lake which entered the Glenview Naval Station on the North and East Lake to the south. One half mile West of us, Glenbrook Hospital was constructed and made opporational. Access to the Hospital for Glenview to the East and South and Morton Grove was dependent upon accessing the East and West Lake Avenue grade crossings, one half mile apart. Just what everyone knew would eventually happen, an ambulance with a critical patient was blocked by a freight train. The rerouting and delay in treatment resulted in the death of the patient. Unfortuately it took a loss of life for an underpass to be built on the larger East Lake Avenue. Access to Good Sheppard Hospital is VITAL to us here. A train would block at least two, if not three accesses to the hospital route. I can a appreciate your efforts on behalf of your investors to possibly opporate in a more timely and efficient manor. BUT, not to the extent of the loss your endevor will cause individuals and commerce opporating accross these grade crossings in time, money and most importantly, LOSS OF LIFE. If you proceed with this acquisition, this will be BLOOD MONEY. We lost a son at age 23 to a congenital heart problem. It's totally out of order to lose a child. You would give up your own life for theirs if you could, but arn't given the choice. Immagine the grief and anguish to be experienced by parents as a result of an ill-advised grade crossing by a teenager frustrated with the long delay. A memorial to the one killed would be a deterant to those who think they're invincible, but what a senseless loss of life and for what, a more effecient routing of trains? Explain that to the grieving parents! I appreciate your giving this letter and and those of our neighbors your utmost concideration. Respectfully, Gordon G. Gillen 103 Helm Road Barrington Hills, Illinois 60010 1-847-426-4897
Submitted by: Gordon G. Gillen · Barrington Community Against Rail Congestion · Barrington Hills, Illinois
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-4728 · back to the docket sheet