Comment EI-5408
Received or sent (printed as 2/14/2008)
I am writing to express my complete opposition to the potential sale of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern rail line to the Canadian National Railway. The EJE traverses through the village that I reside in, Lake Zurich, IL. My opposition is based upon a number of specific safety concerns pertinent to my family as well as the overall safety of our community. First, the rail line is located immediately adjacent to May Whitney School as well as Lake Zurich High School. My daughter Madison travels to this school daily on a schoolbus and my son begins the same trip later this year. My safety concerns extend to the fact that our local schoolbuses cross the grade level EJE line hundreds of time a week. I am concerned about the potential for a crossing accident with a school bus and a train at two of the commonly used grade level crossings in our village. I am also concerned that the rail line borders directly on the athletic fields and playgrounds of the grade school and the high school. Children are in these areas constantly, and no barrier exists to keep a child from chasing after a ball and climbing onto the track. I am also very concerned about the noise and the pollution from multiple locomotives per train and the effect that this high volume of rail traffic will have on the school environment and safety issues. Of course, another very significant concern along the entire EJE is that these trains will be carrying hazardous products through heavily populated areas that could create a major disaster and loss of life in the event of an accident. I also have other concerns regarding emergency response. Both the Lake Zurich police and fire departments are located south and east of the rail line. Lake Zurich has a bypass with a rail underpass on Illinois Route 22. If a train were blocking the two primary grade level intersections, emergency vehicles would have just one route to respond to emergencies at May Whitney School, the high school, and the entire downtown and residences to the north. This single route on Il Route 22 is a two lane road with a raised median. If this route is backed up in both westbound lanes (which is a frequent situation at the intersection of Route 22 and Main Street) emergency vehicles can not go around traffic as the median is elevated to prohibit such routing. The end result, even in a low traffic area, is that emergency response to these areas will be delayed by a number of minutes. In an emergency, time is often the difference between life and death. I have other concerns because of the delays that will be caused by these trains at the two primary grade level crossings in Lake Zurich. Schoolbuses remaining in a stopped position near a crowded intersection such as Old Rand Road and Route 22 are susceptible to being struck by passing cars. Further, idling buses waiting for a 10,000 foot train to pass are a source of pollution, will waste fuel and taxpayer money hundreds of hours a year and will cause delays in delivering the children to school or home on schedule. I am also concerned that this rail line divides my neighborhood from the downtown area of Lake Zurich. I will never feel safe allowing my children to ride their bicycles to the downtown to even get a simple ice cream cone. The crossing on the east side of Old Rand Road and Route 22 does not even have a sidewalk for pedestrian traffic. This creates a significant danger to pedestrians as they attempt to cross this patch of grass and mud to traverse to the other side of the tracks. The same problem makes a simple walk or bike ride hazardous for pedestrians from the downtown to reach the Ela Public Library. On a personal level, I cross the EJE line on an average of 8 times per business day in my vehicle. Fortunately, the line today is lightly used and rail traffic delays are fairly uncommon. However, the east west and north south roads in our county are particularly inadequate for existing traffic flow. Old McHenry Road, Main Street, Old Rand Road, Ela Road, Cuba Road Route 59 in Barrington are a combination of east west and north south streets. The EJE crosses each of these critical routes, and the line also is particularly close to the very major thoroughfare of Rand Road in Lake Zurich (at Ela Road). Gridlock at the Ela crossing, particularly to the north, could quickly create a hazardous back-up for cars exiting Rand to southbound Ela. Rand has a 50 MPH speed limit, so stopped cars in active lanes are an accident that will occur over and over again. The proposed new usage of the EJE is universally opposed by the residents of Lake Zurich as well as Barrington. (These are the two towns that I am most familiar with). Simply put, the infrastructure for safety is inadequate at too many points along this rail line, especially at the crossings, and a high volume, high speed rail service on this line will have a widespread detrimental effect on our quality of life. Allowing this sale to occur will dramatically reduce the quality of life in our villages forever, and ironically, it will do NOTHING to alleviate rail congestion into Chicago. This is a stopgap solution to a problem that should be studied and rectified on a Northern Illinois Regional level, not because CN wants to buy EJE on the cheap, and safety and pollution and the people be damned.
Submitted by: Brian B. Hart · Lake Zurich, 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-5408 · back to the docket sheet